ici^mmaxi  Life 

A  Study 


JORDEN  P.  BO'^r^F 


BV  4501  .B72  1899 

Bowne,  Borden  Parker,  1847 

1910. 
The  Christian  life 


INO, 


The  Christian  Life 
A  Study 


By  ^ 

BORDEN  P.  BOWNE 


Cincinnati:  Ctjrts  &  Jennings 

New  York:   Eaton  &  Mains 

1899 


COPYRIGHT  1 899,   BY 
THE  WESTERN  METHODIST  BOOK.  CONCERN 


Preface 

This  study  aims  to  be  a  help  to 
sincerity  and  7iat7iralness  in  religion 
by  cleari7ig  up  some  of  the  confusioiis 
of  popular  religious  thought  a7id 
speech.  We  all  feel  that  iii  religion, 
of  all  matters,  we  should  be  supremely 
real  and  sincere  ;  a7id  yet,  owi7ig  to 
a7i  a7nbiguous  and  misleading  ter- 
minology a7id  the  illusio7is  the7ice  re- 
sulting, a7i  uncomfortable  air  of  arti- 
ficiality aiid  unreality  ofte7i  seems  to 
pervade  the  subject.  This  is  not 
commo7ily  due  to  insincerity,  but 
rather  to  the  ambiguity  a7id  uncer- 
tai7ity  of  the  conventional  thought 
a7id  language  in  this  field.  This 
co7iditio7i  of  things,  however,  is  an 
evil,  and  is  one  of  the  sources  of  re- 
ligious weak7iess  to-day.  We  grope 
in  the  dark  of  U7iwarra7ited  expecta- 
3 


4  Preface 

tions  and  misdirected  effort.  And 
the  only  way  out  seems  to  be  to  clear 
up  our  thought  and  speech,  so  that 
we  may  knoip  what  we  wish  and  what 
we  mean^  thus  enabling  the  religious 
life  to  grow  unhindered  and  undis- 
torted  by  illusion  and  misdirection. 
BORDEN  P.  BO  WNE. 


The   Christian   Life 
A  Study. 

My  purpose  in  writing,  and  the 
scope  of  the  discussion,  will  best 
appear  from  some  facts  of  expe- 
rience : 

Not  long  ago  a  most  worthy 
minister  of  my  acquaintance,  one 
who  had  been  preaching  more 
than  fifty  years  and  who  was  a 
model  of  saintly  living,  came  to 
another  minister,  also  a  friend  of 
mine,  to  talk  about  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit.  And  his  trouble  was 
that  he  could  not  feel  sure  that  he 
had  ever  had  this  witness.  The 
expectation  awakened  by  the 
phrase  had  never  been  satisfied. 
And  the  good  man^s  heart  was 
disturbed,  and  he  sought  counsel 
of  his  brother. 

My  professional  life  has  largely 


The  Christian  Life 


been  spent  in  contact  with  thought- 
ful young  men  and  women ;  and  I 
have  frequently  observed  an  un- 
easy feeling  on  their  part  that  the 
traditional  phrases  of  religious 
speech  do  not  set  forth  with  un- 
strained naturalness  and  transpar- 
ent sincerity  the  facts  of  their 
religious  life.  Often  they  have 
formed  a  conception  of  what  the 
religious  life  should  be  by  reflec- 
tion on  the  customary  and  inher- 
ited phrases ;  and  thus  they  have 
been  led  to  entertain  unwarranted 
expectations.  Then  the  failure 
to  realize  them  has  led  to  an  un- 
comfortable sense  of  artificiality 
and  unreality  in  all  religious  ex- 
perience. 

Some  years  ago  one  of  our  best 
and  wisest  men  told  me  that  he  had 
felt  the  dangers  in  this  direction 
so  keenly  that,  when  his  children 
were  growing  toward  the  point 
where  the  conscious  religious  life 


A  Study  7 

should  begin,  he  had  had  himself 
appointed  class-leader  to  his  own 
family,  in  order  to  preserve  them 
from  the  confusion  and  danger 
of  popular  religious  speech  until 
they  should  have  acquired  suffi- 
cient mental  and  spiritual  matu- 
rity to  grasp  the  truth  for  them- 
selves. 

In  addition,  I  may  say  that  I 
have  been  listening  intelligently 
to  preaching  for  over  thirty  years. 
Of  course  I  have  heard  a  great 
many  good  sermons,  but  in  all  that 
time  I  have  heard  very  few  ser- 
mons on  conversion  and  the  be- 
ginnings of  the  religious  life, 
whether  in  our  own  Church  or 
in  others,  which  were  not  both 
confused  and  confusing.  Theo- 
logical expositions  have  been 
plentiful  enough;  vague  verbal 
exhortations  have  abounded ;  but 
there  has  been  a  grievous  lack 
of   clear  statement  of   what  the 


The  Christian  Life 


seeking  soul   is  to  expect,  or  of 
what  is  expected  from  it. 

Such  facts  suggest,  what  every 
thoughtful  and  observant  person 
must  recognize,  that  there  is  need 
of  revising  popular  religious 
phraseology,  and  also  of  clarify- 
ing popular  conceptions  concern- 
ing the  religious  life  itself,  and 
especially  concerning  its  begin- 
nings in  conversion.  This  study 
is  intended  as  a  contribution  to 
this  desirable  end. 

The  popular  confusion  on 
this  subject  in  our  individualistic 
Churches  has  several  leading 
sources,  and  our  first  work  must  be 
to  indicate  them.  The  first  is  the 
confounding  the  language  of  the- 
ology with  the  languge  of  experi- 
ence. The  second  is  the  mistak- 
ing of  the  abstract  classifications 
of  theological  discussion  for  con- 
crete classifications  of  living  men. 


A  Study  9 

The  third  is  an  exaggerated  indi- 
vidualism. We  consider  them  in 
their  order. 

The   Langfuagfc  of  Theology  and 
the  Langfuag^e  of  Experience 

On  this  point  we  must  note 
that  a  great  many  things  may  be 
theologically  true  which  are  not 
psychologically  true.  We  may 
express  and  explain  the  experi- 
ence in  terms  of  doctrine,  and  in 
so  doing  we  may  have  the  truth ; 
nevertheless,  the  doctrine  is  not  a 
fact  of  consciousness,  but  a  the- 
ory about  the  fact. 

Thus,  when  some  brother  of 
picturesque  habit  of  speech  says 
in  the  social  meeting,  "The  devil 
told  me  not  to  come  here  to-night," 
we  are  not  to  think  that  he  has 
had  an  infernal  interview.  The 
fact  of  experience  is,  that  he  was 
disinclined  to  come,  and  this  dis- 
inclination he  attributes   to   the 


lO  The  Christian  Life 

devil.  But  however  correct  this 
may  be  as  a  theory  of  the  hidden 
source  of  the  temptation,  it  would 
be  highly  infelicitous  to  suppose 
that  anything  of  the  sort  occurred 
within  the  consciousness  of  the 
individual  himself.  The  experi- 
ence as  he  states  it  is  not  the  ex- 
perience as  lying  within  the  range 
of  consciousness,  but  rather  the 
experience  as  theologized  or,  more 
properly,  diabolized  by  this  in- 
fernal reference. 

A  less  distasteful  illustration  of 
the  difference  between  the  lan- 
guage of  theology  and  that  of 
conscious  experience  may  be 
found  in  our  speech  concerning 
the  Divine  providence  in  our 
lives.  We  believe  and  teach  that 
our  times  are  in  God's  hand ;  but 
this  does  not  imply  that  we  have 
any  perception  of  the  Divine 
presence,  or  even  that  we  can 
clearly  trace  the  way  in  which 


A  Study  1 1 

God  is  working  out  his  will  con- 
cerning us. 

The  life  of  experience  is  the 
familiar  life  of  question,  uncer- 
tainty, forethought,  calculation, 
and  venture,  in  all  of  which, 
moreover,  we  commonly  seem 
left,  at  our  own  risk,  to  find  the 
way ;  and  not  infrequently  we  miss 
it,  and  go  astray.  We  still  retain 
the  doctrine  as  an  article  of  faith ; 
but  we  see  that  we  must  work  out 
our  own  salvation  nevertheless. 
The  doctrine  expresses  a  theory 
of  life  rather  than  a  conscious  ex- 
perience ;  and  unless  we  bear  this 
distinction  in  mind,  it  is  more 
likely  to  be  a  source  of  doubt 
than  of  comfort. 

This  is  self-evident  to  every 
thoughtful  person;  but  what  is 
not  so  plain  to  every  one  is,  that 
there  is  a  vast  amount  of  language 
concerning  the  inner  life  which  is 
of  the  same  sort.     It  is  not  the 


12  The  Christian  Life 

language  of  experience,  but  of 
theological  theory.  A  great  many 
things  are  said  about  the  work  of 
the  Lord  in  the  soul ;  the  oper- 
ations of  the  Spirit,  his  presence 
with  us, — and  all  this  may  be  true 
theologically,  but  it  is  not  true 
psychologically.  Moreover,  a  per- 
son who  holds  the  theology  in 
question  may  very  naturally  use 
it  for  expressing  his  experience; 
yet  even  that  does  not  make  it  a 
fact  of  experience.  It  is  an  ob- 
ject of  belief,  not  a  fact  of  con- 
sciousness ;  an  accepted  doctrine, 
not  a  conscious  datum.  Never- 
theless, this  language  of  theory  is 
put  forward  as  the  language  of 
experience,  and  then  confusion 
arises.  By  consequence  a  great 
many  try  to  experience  theology 
instead  of  experiencing  religion. 
Two  classes  of  persons  escape 
this  confusion.  The  first  class 
consists  of  those  persons,  unskilled 


A  Study  13 

in  reflection,  whose  language  has 
only  an  accidental  connection 
with  their  ideas.  They  hear  and 
inherit  phrases,  and  they  have  a 
measure  of  religious  life.  They 
also  use  the  phrases  upon  occa- 
sion ;  but  no  one  could  ever  dis- 
cover from  a  reflection  on  the 
phrases,  and  the  ordinary  secular 
use  of  language,  what  the  corre- 
sponding experience  might  be. 
One  must  gather  this  from  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  subject  mat- 
ter, and  with  the  peculiar  forms 
of  speech  in  this  field.  Here, 
again,  we  find  illustration  in  the 
brother  who  says  the  devil  tells 
him  to  do  this  or  that.  No  exe- 
gesis of  the  utterance,  according 
to  the  recognized  usage  of  secular 
speech,  would  ever  reveal  that  this 
means  only  that  the  person  feels 
an  inclination  to  some  evil  deed, 
and  ascribes  it  to  the  devil  as  its 
source.     Persons  in  this  stage  of 


14  The  Christian  Life 

development  are  not  harmed  by 
speecli  whicli  would  be  mislead- 
ing to  one  wbo  sought  to  under- 
stand it  in  the  ordinary  way. 
They  do  not  get  any  ideas  from 
language,  but  they  express  the 
ideas  they  have  in  the  phrases 
which  have  become  conventional 
upon  the  subject. 

The  second  class  of  persons 
who  suffer  no  harm  from  such 
language  consists  of  those  who 
have  learned  to  take  the  language, 
not  for  what  it  seems  to  say,  but 
for  what  they  know  it  means. 
They  understand  the  picturesque 
phrase,  or  discount  the  extrava- 
gant metaphor,  or  penetrate  to  the 
meaning  behind  some  grotesque 
or  distasteful  image,  and  thus  es- 
cape the  illusion  which  might 
otherwise  arise. 

But  there  is  a  third  class  less 
fortunate.  This  consists  of  per- 
sons who  have  attained  to  some 


A  Study  15 

measure  of  reflective  conscious- 
ness, but  who  have  not  learned  to 
distinguish  the  language  of  the- 
ology from  the  language  of  ex- 
perience. By  consequence  they 
seek  to  tell  what  the  religious  fact 
should  be  by  reflecting  on  the 
language  they  hear  used  to  de- 
scribe it.  Only  such  or  such  an 
experience  would  come  up  to  the 
demands  of  the  language ,  and  then 
they  seek  to  have  the  experience. 
But  somehow  or  other  the  appro- 
priate experience  does  not  come ; 
and  then  comes  either  an  attempt 
to  believe  the  actual  experience 
is  the  one  desired  or  else  a  sus- 
picion that  the  whole  matter  is 
fictitious.  Not  a  few  good  Chris- 
tions  have  lived  on  uneasy  terms 
with  their  religious  experience  on 
this  account.  They  have  taken 
the  language  of  theology  for  the 
language  of  consciousness,  and 
thus  have  been  led  to  form  unwar- 


1 6  The  Christian  Life 

ranted  expectations.  My  friend, 
who  was  troubled  about  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit,  had  the  root  of 
his  difficulty  right  here.  The 
phrase  had  led  him  to  expect  some 
sort  of  celestial  manifestation,  a 
testimony  from  without,  and 
standing  so  clearly  apart  from 
the  ordinary  laws  of  mental 
movement  as  to  be  undeniably 
produced  by  the  manifest  God. 
In  lack  of  any  such  experience,  he 
doubted  whether  he  had  had  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit.  This  class 
comprises  the  great  mass  of 
thoughtful  young  persons  in  the 
Churches.  And  for  this  class  the 
religious  teacher  needs  to  bear  in 
mind  the  distinction  between  the- 
ology and  consciousness,  in  order 
to  escape  misleading  and  danger- 
ous confusion. 

The  language  of  theology  must 
often  be  used,  indeed,  but  it 
should  be  used  in  such  a  way  as 


A  Study  17 

not  to  mislead  the  inexperienced 
hearer  or  reader  into  an  attempt 
to  experience  theology-.  And,  in 
general,  we  must  remember  that 
all  language  about  the  inner  life 
must  be  misleading  to  any  one  who 
interprets  it  only  by  the  diction- 
ary. Commonly  the  language  is 
a  metaphor,  or  it  has  a  fixity 
and  definiteness  which  do  not  be- 
long to  the  fact.  Or  it  may  ex- 
press an  ideal  toward  which  we 
strive,  but  which  we  never  fully 
attain.  There  is  much  religious 
speech  of  this  sort.  It  indicates 
a  direction  or  sets  forth  an  ideal, 
to  which  we  can  only  approximate. 
The  fact  itself,  however,  can  be 
learned  only  in  life ;  and  the  lan- 
guage is  only  an  imperfect  instru- 
ment for  expressing  the  life.  The 
religious  teacher  can  not  be  too 
careful  and  discriminating  at  this 
point. 


1 8  The  Christian  Life 

ThcoIo§ficaI  Abstractions  and 
Livingf   Men 

Tlie  second  great  source  of  our 
confusion  is  the  mistaking  of  the 
hard  and  fast  lines  and  antitheses 
of  theological  ethics  for  concrete 
facts  among  living  men.  Ethics 
in  general  tends  to  fall  into  this 
error.  We  speak  of  the  moral 
agent  and  of  responsibility,  and 
have  fairly  clear  ideas  as  to  our 
meaning,  so  long  as  we  remain  in 
the  field  of  abstraction.  But  the 
matter  becomes  indefinitely  more 
complex  when  we  look  at  actual 
human  beings.  Then  we  find 
that  we  have  to  deal,  not  with 
hypothetical  and  abstract  moral 
agents,  but  with  beings  in  an  or- 
der of  development  where  the  in- 
tellectual insight,  the  volitional 
energy  and  self-control,  and  the 
moral  sensibility  have  to  be  de- 
veloped, and  where  the  develop- 


A  Study  19 

ment  is  never  complete.  This 
complicates  the  matter  indefi- 
nitely; and  while  our  abstract 
ideas  are  still  true  as  abstractions, 
we  see  that  they  have  to  be  greatly 
modified  in  application. 

The  fact  appears  even  more 
prominently  in  theology.  We 
form  such  antithetical  classes  as 
saints  and  sinners,  the  saved  and 
the  unsaved;  and  we  fancy  that 
living  human  beings  admit  of  be- 
ing classified  in  this  hard  and 
fast  way.  Of  course  these  abstrac- 
tions are  necessary  in  theoretical 
discussion,  and  the  opposed  classes 
are  mutually  exclusive  and  con- 
tradictory; nevertheless,  concrete 
men,  women,  and  children  can 
not  be  divided  off  so  easily.  This 
is  a  world  of  growth  from  irre- 
sponsible ignorance  and  weakness 
toward  responsible  power  and  in- 
sight; it  is  a  world  of  develop- 
ment  from   sub-moral   and    sub- 


20  The  Christian  Life 

rational  beginnings  toward  moral 
and  rational  endings.  And  in 
such  a  world  we  must  view  great 
masses  of  men  as  neither  saved 
nor  lost,  but  as  developing  to- 
wards these  conditions.  They 
are  neither  good  nor  bad,  in  a 
strictly  moral  sense,  but  are  be- 
coming good  or  bad.  An  aca- 
demic ethics  and  an  artificial  the- 
ology find  no  place  for  them,  yet 
they  form  the  bulk  of  the  human 
race.  And  we  shall  never  reach 
any  theory  which  will  satisfy  the 
developed  moral  judgment  of  men 
until  this  fact  has  been  recog- 
nized. The  human  world  is  less  a 
world  in  which  moral  classes  exist 
than  one  in  which  moral  classes 
are  forming. 

But  this  is  generally  overlooked, 
and  we  divide  men  into  antithet- 
ical classes,  as  the  saved  and  the 
unsaved.  This  has  generally  been 
done  from  an  abstract  standpoint ; 


A  Study  21 

and  abstract  law  and  abstract  jus- 
tice and  abstract  holiness  and  ab- 
stract sin  have  played  their  ab- 
stract part.  But  after  we  have 
adopted  this  division,  it  becomes 
an  important  matter  to  fix  the 
standard  of  distinction.  If  one  is 
not  saved,  it  is  a  matter  of  serious 
concern  to  know  the  ground  of  the 
exclusion,  particularly  as  the  tra- 
ditional classification  by  no  means 
always  runs  parallel  with  our  un- 
sophisticated moral  judgments. 
In  response  to  this  need,  theolo- 
gians have  given  a  great  variety 
of  answers.  Those  who  have  lost 
themselves  in  theological  and  rit- 
ual mechanism,  have  found  the 
mark  of  being  saved  in  the  due 
performance  of  some  rite,  or  pro- 
nunciation of  some  formula ;  but 
this  removes  the  matter  from  the 
moral  and  rational  field  altogether. 
The  Churches  which  insist  on 
personal  piety,  tend  to  fix  atten- 


22  The  Christian  Life 

tion  on  conversion,  or  a  change  of 
heart,  or  the  new  birth,  as  the  dis- 
tinctive mark  of  the  saved ;  and, 
because  of  the  failure  to  grasp  the 
fact  of  development,  this  is  com- 
monly supposed  to  have  a  definite 
date  in  time.  And  in  order  that 
there  be  no  mistake  about  a  mat- 
ter so  important,  these  Churches 
have  sought  for  unmistakable 
signs  of  grace  which  should  leave 
no  question.  This  has  led  to  cer- 
tain conceptions  of  these  things 
to  which  experience  must  con- 
form, on  pain  of  being  distrusted, 
if  not  rejected,  as  spurious;  and 
this  in  turn  has  led  to  an  indefi- 
nite amount  of  distortion  of  ex- 
perience in  order  to  bring  it  up  to 
the  assumed  standard. 

Exaggerated  Individualism 

In  the  imperfect  conditions  of 
undeveloped  men,  every  good 
thing  has  its  attendant  evil,  or  at 


A  Study  23 

least  a  tendency  to  develop  into 
mistaken  forms.  A  very  general 
tendency,  even  in  the  Christian 
religion,  has  been  to  develop  into 
mechanical  externalism,  in  which 
the  spirit  is  missed  altogether. 
Ancient  Pharisaism  is  a  monu- 
mental example.  The  same  thing 
is  seen  in  the  medieval  Church ; 
and  modern  Church  history  is  not 
lacking  in  illustration.  There  is 
a  tendency  to  substitute  a  mechan- 
ical performance  of  mechanical 
rites  for  the  love  and  loyalty  of 
the  heart.  Hence,  religious  re- 
formers have  commonly  had  to 
protest  against  this  tendency,  and 
to  recall  men  to  the  worship  of 
the  spirit.  The  Lord  looketh  at 
the  heart.  They  that  worship 
God  must  worship  him  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  The  prophets  of 
the  Old  Testament  had  for  one 
of  their  chief  burdens  the  worth- 
lessness  of  rites  and  ceremonies, 


24  The  Christian  Life 

and  the  necessity  of  the  pure 
heart,  if  we  would  secure  the  Di- 
vine favor.  God,  who  looketh  at 
the  heart,  can  never  compound 
for  spiritual  obedience  by  accept- 
ing anything  less.  And  this  has 
been  the  tone  of  all  succeeding  re- 
formers and  reformations.  Away 
with  all  salvation  by  machinery, 
by  hearsay,  by  proxy,  and  let  the 
soul  come  face  to  face  with  God 
in  repentance  and  humility  and 
faith !  Only  thus  can  it  hope  to 
obtain  the  remission  of  sins. 

This  view  certainly  represents 
the  ideal  of  spiritual  religion ;  and 
religious  development  must  be 
looked  upon  as  imperfect,  even 
formally,  until  this  stage  has  been 
reached.  And  if  we  were  dealing 
with  human  beings  ready-made 
and  finished  from  the  start,  we 
might  conceive  that  this  is  the 
only  conception  to  be  allowed. 
But  the  matter  is  complicated  by 


A  Study  25 

the  fact  and  form  of  human  de- 
velopment. This  spiritual  atti- 
tude may  be  demanded  of  those 
who  have  developed  far  enough 
to  understand  it;  but  what  of 
those  who  have  not?  Are  they 
saved  or  unsaved? 

This  question  has  been  the 
source  of  some  extraordinary  no- 
tions in  theology.  The  question 
itself  arose  from  a  failure  to  ob- 
serve that  development  is  the  law 
of  human  life;  and  the  notions 
held  rested  upon  factitious  ethical 
difficulties,  based  upon  consider- 
ing the  problem  in  an  abstract 
forensic  way,  instead  of  a  concrete 
and  truly  ethical  manner.  Some 
theologians  of  rigor  and  vigor 
taught  the  damnation  of  infants, 
but  humanity  generally  protested 
at  this  ultra  rigor.  But  how  to 
save  them  was  a  problem  which 
received  no  single  solution.  The 
great  body  of  Christians  turned 


26  The  Christian  Life 

baptism  into  a  regenerating  rite 
which  insured  the  safety  of  its 
subjects.  One  can  not  make 
much  out  of  this  on  ethical  and 
rational  grounds ;  but  it  is  inter- 
esting as  showing  the  well-nigh 
universal  conviction  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  that  some  way  nmst 
be  found  of  saving  the  children. 
Those  who  did  not  accept  this  de- 
vice, found  or  invented  others; 
and  the  same  fact  was  true  of 
these — ^they  testified  to  a  good  dis- 
position and  to  the  recognition  of 
a  moral  necessity ;  but  it  was  ex- 
ceedingly hard  to  adjust  them  to 
any  ethical  and  rational  scheme. 
In  general,  here  was  a  problem 
which  the  religious  reformer  did 
not  always  sufficiently  consider. 
In  assuming  responsibility  for  the 
immature,  the  Church  had  made 
some  provision  for  comprehending 
the  race  as  a  whole  in  the  scheme 
of  salvation;   but  in  so  doing,  it 


A  Sttidy  27 

had  also  exposed  itself  to  a  variety 
of  dangers.  The  Church  easily 
came  to  be  looked  iipou  as  having 
complete  power  of  attorney  in  the 
case,  so  that  the  individual  need 
not  appear  at  all.  This  readily 
passed  into  a  mechanical  concep- 
tion of  religion,  and  a  magical 
conception  of  salvation,  in  which 
all  spirituality  disappeared.  The 
individual  had  nothing  to  do  but 
to  make  arrangements  with  the 
Church,  and  the  Church  would  do 
the  rest. 

Against  such  a  conception  the 
religious  reformer  rightly  revolted. 
What  does  baptism  amount  to 
without  the  spirit?  What  does 
anything  in  religion  amount  to 
without  the  pure  heart?  And 
this  can  not  be  secured  by  proxy 
or  machinery  of  any  kind.  Away 
then,  once  more,  with  all  such 
matters !  for  salvation  is  a  strictly 
individual  thing.    State  Churches 


28  The  Christian  Life 

were  abominations,  as  their  fruits 
clearly  showed.  The  truly  spirit- 
ual were  to  come  out  from  among 
them,  and  be  separate,  and  thus 
build  up  a  peculiar  people,  zealous 
of  good  works. 

All  of  this  was  well-meant,  and 
all  of  this  had  its  historical  reasons, 
if  not  its  justification.  But  none 
the  less  was  it  one-sided.  Of 
course  we  must  reject  the  mech- 
anism of  rite  and  ceremony  as 
anything  in  which  to  trust,  or 
which  can  dispense  with  the  de- 
votion of  the  heart;  but  we  can 
do  this  and  still  recognize  that 
this  mechanism  may  be  a  valua- 
ble instrument  in  forming  the 
thought  and  training  the  feeling 
of  developing  men.  Of  course  we 
must  reject  the  notion  that  the 
Church  can  forgive  sins ;  but  still 
we  may  believe  that  it  can  declare 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  which  of  it- 
self it  can  not  confer.     We  must 


A  Study  29 

remember  that  the  mass  of  hu- 
man beings  must  live  by  hear- 
say, in  religion  as  well  as  in  most 
other  matters;  and  thus  the  au- 
thoritative teaching  of  the  Church 
acquires  profound  significance  for 
the  religious  life  of  the  individ- 
iial.  The  religious  reformer  was 
right,  but  the  Churchman  was 
right  too.  The  reformer  empha- 
sized individualism;  and  the 
Churchman  emphasized  solidarity. 
The  reformer  rightly  held  that 
the  individual  must  for  himself 
recognize  and  accept  the  Divine 
will,  and  that  all  below  this  was 
vain  if  this  result  was  not  reached ; 
but  the  Churchman  rightly  held 
that  the  preparatory  steps,  while 
making  nothing  perfect,  still  had 
their  religious  significance  in  the 
development  of  the  individual. 
Both  views  are  needed  for  the  full 
expression  of  the  truth ;  and  if  the 
historic  circumstances  of  the  time 


30  The  Christian  Life 

had  permitted  the  reforms  to  go 
on  within  the  Church,  the  result 
would  have  been  better  for  all  con- 
cerned. And  this  is  true  alike 
for  the  great  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion and  for  minor  reformations 
before  and  since.  That  both  views 
are  needed  especially  appears  from 
the  struggles  of  the  extreme  in- 
dividualists in  fixing  the  begin- 
ning of  responsibility.  One  con- 
siderable body,  which  would  hear 
of  nothing  but  conscious  choice 
and  self-initiative  in  religion,  offi- 
cially fixed  the  tender  age  of  eight 
years  as  the  date  when  adult  life 
begins. 

But  in  their  determination  to 
have  a  holy  Church,  our  Noncon- 
formist ancestors  decided  to  have 
only  the  best ;  and  this  made  it 
necessary  to  draw  a  sharp  line  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  world. 
It  was  heresy  to  find  this  in  bap- 
tism or  any  such  thing.      They 


A  Study  31 

knew  only  too  well  that  baptized 
persons  could  hold  full  member- 
ship in  the  synagogue  of  Satan. 
And  as  spirituality  was  their  aim, 
they  naturally  fixed  their  atten- 
tion on  the  religious  life,  and  more 
especially  on  its  assumed  begin- 
ning in  conversion.  And,  in  or- 
der that  there  might  be  no  mistake 
about  the  matter,  a  deal  of  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  signs  of 
grace,  whereby  a  sheep  might  in- 
fallibly be  known  and  separated 
from  common  goats.  This  led,  in 
New  England,  under  Edwards's 
influence,  to  much  fictitious  psy- 
chology and  ethics,  and  to  a  gen- 
eral browbeating  of  human  nature. 
Our  Methodist  ancestors  tended  to 
test  conversion  by  its  emotional 
attendants.  Other  things  being 
equal,  these  will  vary  with  the 
measure  of  the  break  between  the 
new  life  and  the  old.  An  out- 
breaking  sinner,   who   has   been 


32  The  Chfistian  Life 

living  in  violation  of  all  the  laws 
of  God  and  man,  could  not  begin 
tlie  new  life  without  a  break  with 
about  all  there  was  in  his  old  life. 
In  such  a  case  the  fountains  of  the 
great  deep  would  be  broken  up 
within  him,  and  there  would  be 
an  intensity  of  feeling  and  a  man- 
ifest new  departure  which  would 
be  lacking,  or  less  obvious,  in  the 
case  of  a  better  man.  And  as 
Methodism,  in  its  original  work, 
dealt  largely  with  persons  of  this 
class,  conversions  were  largely  of 
this  type,  and  they  came  to  be  the 
standard  to  which  conversions 
should  conform.  Such  conver- 
sions were  said  to  be  clear  or  pow- 
erful ;  while  others,  less  marked, 
though  admitted,  were  still  open 
to  the  suspicion  of  being  less  thor- 
ough. Every  one  familiar  with 
Methodist  revival  services  knows 
how  much  of  this  thing  there  has 
been  among  us. 


A  Study  33 

Thus  we  have  seen  the  origin 
and  justification  of  the  ideal  of 
the  individualistic  Churches  in 
regard  to  personal  religion;  and 
we  have  also  seen  how  much  con- 
fusion and  uncertainty  exist  in 
popular  thought  respecting  the 
matter.  And  the  only  way  out 
of  this  confusion  seems  to  be  to 
get  back  to  our  fundamental  re- 
ligious conceptions,  and  from 
them  seek  to  find  our  way  to 
some  clearer  views  of  the  relig- 
ious life. 

The  Essential  Point  of  View 

Religious  truth  can  be  ex- 
pressed only  by  figures  borrowed 
from  the  relations  of  the  life  that 
now  is.  All  religious  speech, 
then,  is  based  on  metaphor,  and 
must  be  taken,  not  for  what  it 
says,  but  for  what  it  means.  The 
task  of  religious  thought  is  to 
3 


34  The  Cliristian  Life 

find  the  meaning  in  the  meta- 
phor, and  also  to  find  the  meta- 
phor which  shall  best  express  the 
meaning.  There  is  a  choice  in 
metaphors. 

The  traditional  theological  doc- 
trine concerning  sin  and  salvation 
has  been  largely  built  on  meta- 
phors, taken  partly  from  the  rites 
of  the  ancient  temple  service  and 
partly  from  governmental,  legal, 
and  criminal  relations.  God^s  re- 
lation to  men  was  generally  con- 
ceived, in  the  obsolescent  theology 
of  the  past,  as  that  of  an  irrespon- 
sible governor.  Men  were  by  na- 
ture criminals,  and  the  theory  of 
the  mutual  relations  of  God  and 
men  was  based  mainly  on  this 
conception.  The  notion  of  the 
governor  and  his  rights  was  de- 
termined largely  by  the  political 
absolutism  of  the  time,  and  the 
standing  of  men  was  determined 
by  the  forms  of  criminal  law  and 


A  Study  35 

criminal  procedure.  The  two  to- 
gether produced  a  most  incongru- 
ous compound.  The  theology  was 
bad,  and  the  ethics  was  worse. 
God,  like  the  king,  could  do  no 
wrong ;  and  the  clay  was  forbid- 
den to  protest  at  anything  the 
potter  might  do.  The  infinite  ill- 
desert  of  a  sin  against  an  infinite 
being  was  a  favorite  contention. 
Guilt  was  artificial,  justice  was 
artificial,  penalty  was  artificial, 
salvation  was  artificial,  perdition 
was  artificial.  There  was  very 
little  in  the  doctrine  concerning 
any  of  these  things  that  spoke 
clearly  and  convincingly  to  the 
reason  and  conscience  of  men. 
This  general  view  resulted  in  con- 
ceiving men  as  rebels,  apostates, 
traitors,  and  as  all  deserving  im- 
mediate perdition  at  the  hands  of 
God.  They  were  by  nature  chil- 
dren of  wrath,  and  of  course  un- 
saved.    A  great  many  texts,  in- 


36  The  Christian  Life 

terpreted  according  to  the  fashion 
of  that  time,  readily  lent  them- 
selves to  such  notions. 

But  the  entire  Church  has 
grown  away  from  this  view,  ex- 
cept as  a  very  imperfect  and  in- 
adequate representation  of  the 
truth.  God  may  be  represented 
as  governor,  but  never  with  the 
limitations  of  a  human  governor, 
and  still  less  with  the  irresponsi- 
bility of  an  Oriental  ruler.  The 
crude  devices  of  criminal  law, 
also,  which  are  mainly  make- 
shifts for  doing  as  little  injustice 
as  possible,  are  never  to  be  ap- 
pealed to  as  models  of  divine  pro- 
cedure. We  are  fast  displacing 
the  entire  conception  of  God  as 
governor  by  the  conception  of 
God  as  father;  and  the  concep- 
tion of  the  divine  government 
is  giving  place  to  the  concep- 
tion of  the  divine  family.  The 
deepest   thought  of    God   is  not 


A  Study  37 

that  of  ruler,  but  of  father; 
and  the  deepest  thought  of  men 
is  not  that  of  subjects,  but  of 
children.  And  the  deepest 
thought  concerning  God's  pur- 
pose in  our  life  is  not  salvation 
from  threatening  danger,  but  the 
training  and  development  of  souls 
as  the  children  of  God.  Salva- 
tion or  redemption  is  but  an  in- 
cident or  implication  of  this 
deeper  purpose,  and  must  be  in- 
terpreted accordingly.  The  en- 
tire subject  must  be  studied  as  a 
relation  of  living  moral  persons 
rather  than  of  ethical  and  juristic 
abstractions. 

This  new  conception  of  the  fa- 
therhood and  the  family  contains 
all  that  was  true  in  the  old  concep- 
tion of  governor  and  subject ;  but 
it  is  deeper  and  more  comprehen- 
sive, and  hence  truer,  than  the 
old.  And  in  so  far  as  the  older 
view  conflicts  with  this,  it  must 


38  The  Christian  Life 

be  modified  or  set  aside.  It  may 
be  retained  as  a  partial  view,  or 
as  one  aspect  of  the  subject,  but 
it  must  always  be  interpreted  in 
accordance  with  the  larger  view. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  new 
conception  is  not  to  be  viewed  as 
a  sentimental  one,  or  as  involving 
a  relaxation  of  the  rigor  of  moral 
demands. 

The  training  and  development 
of  souls  as  the  children  of  God, 
then,  is  God's  essential  purpose  in 
the  creation  of  men;  and  we 
must  understand  our  human  life 
from  this  point  of  view.  And  we 
must  also  bear  in  mind  that  it  is 
an  order  of  development.  That 
was  not  first  which  was  spiritual, 
but  that  which  was  natural,  and 
afterward  that  which  was  spirit- 
ual. The  development  has  a  nat- 
ural root  as  well  as  a  spiritual 
goal.  The  development  also  in- 
volves the  unfolding  of  the  con- 


A  Sttidy  39 

stitutional  powers  of  man  as  well 
as  his  abstract  spiritual  capaci- 
ties. For  a  long  time  the  devel- 
opment remains  on  the  plane  of  the 
natural  without  attaining  to  the 
consciously  spiritual ;  but  all  the 
while  it  is  the  development  of 
man  in  a  divinely  ordered  scheme ; 
and  all  the  phases  and  factors  of 
this  scheme  have  their  place  and 
function  in  the  divine  plan  for 
men. 

Of  course  in  such  a  scheme  our 
traditional  categories  of  the  saved 
and  the  unsaved  can  not  be  ap- 
plied in  any  hard  and  fast  man- 
ner, but  must  be  limited  to  a  rel- 
ative significance.  They  have  a 
value  in  abstract  theory,  and  they 
may  express  a  limit  toward  which 
men  are  tending,  but  they  can 
not  be  rigorously  applied  to  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  race.  As 
said  before,  men  are  not  so  much 
saved     as     they     are    becoming 


40  The  Christian  Life 

saved ;  and  men  are  not  so  mucli 
lost  as  they  are  becoming  lost. 
The  process  is  going  on;  the 
classes  are  forming;  but  we  are 
totally  unable  to  form  any  fixed 
classification  of  these  living  men 
and  women  about  us.  The  vari- 
ous traditional  tests  are  grotesque 
in  their  inadequacy,  when  they 
are  not  purely  mechanical  and 
non-moral. 

Human  beings  are  carried  on 
in  the  beginnings  of  their  exist- 
ence as  unconsciously  as  nature 
itself.  They  are  borne  along  like 
the  rocks  and  the  trees,  the  earth 
and  the  stars,  without  any  sense 
of  the  will  and  the  purpose  which 
underlie  their  motion.  But  it  is 
God's  thought  for  men  that  they 
shall  not  always  be  borne  along 
thus  unconsciously,  but  shall  be- 
come aware  of  God's  presence  and 
purpose  in  their  lives,  and  shall 
reverently  recognize  the  presence, 


A  Study  41 

and  filially  accept  and  co-operate 
with  the  purpose.  They  are  to 
pass  from  the  unconsciousness  of 
nature  and  the  ignorance  of  child- 
hood to  the  conscious  recognition 
and  acceptance  of  the  Divine  will ; 
and  then  they  are  to  go  on  with 
God  in  deepening  sympathy  and 
growing  fellowship  forever. 

This  is  God's  eternal  thought 
for  men,  and  it  is  not  modified  in 
any  way  in  its  essential  nature  by 
the  fact  of  sin.  Of  course,  a  deal 
of  what  we  call  sin  is  error  and 
mistake,  arising  from  the  igno- 
rance of  men  who  have  to  feel 
their  way.  And  sin  itself,  as  we 
find  it  among  men,  is  largely  the 
willfulness  of  freedom  which  has 
not  learned  self-control,  rather 
than  any  deliberate  choice  of  evil. 
Ignorance  and  untrained  willful- 
ness abound,  and  both  alike  must 
be  removed,  or  they  will  increase 
and  lead  to  disaster.     Ignorance 


42  The  Christian  Life 

must  be  enlightened  if  men  are 
ever  to  find  the  way.  The  un- 
chastened  will  must  learn  self- 
restraint  if  it  is  to  run  at  large. 
But  during  the  process  we  must 
not  indulge  in  extravagant  con- 
demnation by  bringing  in  the 
categories  of  abstract  theological 
ethics.  These  have  as  little  ap- 
plication to  the  case  as  they  would 
have  to  the  judgment  of  the  fam- 
ily life. 

This  reference  to  the  family 
gives  us  a  hint  of  how  developing 
beings  are  to  be  judged.  The 
father's  desire  is,  that  the  chil- 
dren shall  come  to  recognize  his 
love  and  filially  to  accept  his  com- 
mands. He  desires  that  they  shall 
develop  into  sympathy  and  fellow- 
ship with  himself ;  and  not  until 
this  stage  is  reached  is  the  devel- 
opment complete.  But  in  the 
meantime  the  children  belong  to 
the  family,  and  have  immeasur- 


A  Study  43 

able  value  for  the  father's  heart. 
They  know  little  or  nothing  of 
the  love  that  is  lavished  upon 
them;  but  it  is  there,  neverthe- 
less, and  by  it  they  are  upborne 
and  carried  along.  The  parents 
have  patience  with  the  ignorance, 
the  irresponsiveness,  the  willful- 
ness, knowing  that  time  and  dis- 
cipline and  some  experience  of  life 
are  necessary  to  bring  the  children 
to  any  proper  knowledge  of  them- 
selves and  of  their  duties.  Mean- 
while the  wise  parent  is  not  unduly 
distressed  at  childish  imperfection. 
He  knows  it  is  to  be  expected  and 
must  be  borne  with.  He  knows, 
too,  that  it  is  nothing  very  serious 
in  itself — it  is  serious  only  in  its 
tendencies ;  and  he  avails  himself 
of  all  the  means  of  discipline,  of 
instruction,  of  correction,  to  pre- 
vent the  evil  tendencies  from  be- 
ing realized.  But  he  would  re- 
gard it  as  in  the  highest  degree 


44  The  Christian  Life 

false  and  abominable  if  one  should 
claim  that  the  little  rebellions  of 
childhood  forfeit  membership  in 
the  family.  Children  can  not  re- 
bel to  this  extent.  Their  igno- 
rance and  general  lack  of  insight 
make  it  impossible.  What  might 
be  possible  with  angels,  we  can 
not  tell.  What  doom  should  fol- 
low rebellion  committed  in  the 
full  light  of  knowledge  and  with 
full  insight  into  its  evil  nature, 
might  be  hard  to  say.  But  hu- 
man life  is  not  of  this  sort,  and 
can  not  be  treated  in  this  way. 
Such  discussion  must  be  limited 
to  treatises  on  the  sin  of  the  devil 
and  his  angels ;  it  has  no  applica- 
tion to  human  conditions. 

But  we  are  sinners.  Yes,  but 
not  outcasts.  But  we  are  rebels. 
No,  we  are  prodigal  sons.  And 
God*s  grace  is  such  that  his  es- 
sential will  for  us  remains  un- 
changed, that  we  should  become 


A  Study  45 

aware  of  his  loving  purpose  for 
us,  and  should  accept  it  in  filial 
submission,  and  work  together 
with  him  in  building  up  his  king- 
dom among  men.  And  this,  too, 
we  understand  from  the  side  of 
the  family  again.  The  supreme  de- 
sireof  the  prodigal's  father  was  that 
the  prodigal  should  come  home  to 
him,  the  father ;  and  the  supreme 
duty  of  the  prodigal  was  to  go 
home  in  the  spirit  of  penitence, 
and  devote  himself  to  doing  his 
father's  will.  And  we,  as  prod- 
igal sons  of  our  Heavenly  Father, 
have  the  same  all-inclusive  duty. 
How  the  forgiveness  of  sin  is 
made  possible  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  much  theory,  largely  ab- 
stract and  often  unedifying.  In 
fact,  there  is  no  completely  satis- 
factory theory  on  the  subject,  sup- 
posing any  theory  is  needed.  We 
find  various  conceptions  given  in 
the  Scriptures,  which  are  mutu- 


46  The  Christian  Life 

ally  inconsistent  when  taken  in 
strict  literalness,  and  some  of 
which  would  be  immoral.  This 
shows  that  they  are  not  to  be 
taken  literally,  but  must  be  viewed 
as  adumbrations  of  the  truth ;  not 
the  truth  itself,  but  ways  of  put- 
ting it.  And  these  views  are  to  be 
understood  psychologically  rather 
than  logically ;  as  expressions  of 
life  rather  than  as  statutory  enact- 
ments. Taken  in  the  former  way, 
they  are  full  of  significance  and 
truth;  taken  in  the  latter  way, 
they  become  mechanical,  irra- 
tional, and  pernicious.  But  in 
any  case,  this  question  belongs  to 
theology,  and  not  to  religious  ex- 
perience. However  it  may  be 
brought  about,  or  whatever  hid- 
den mystery  there  may  lie  in  the 
Divine  nature,  the  one  thing  we 
have  to  proclaim  is  the  grace  of 
God,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the 
Divine  help  for  all  those  who  truly 


A  Study  47 

seek  it.  The  revelation  of  God  in 
Christ  is  essentially  a  revelation 
of  his  grace  and  his  gracious  dis- 
position toward  us.  He  has  sent 
his  Son  to  proclaim  this,  and  to 
put  it  beyond  all  doubt  forever. 
The  Father's  heart  yearns  after 
the  prodigal  children ;  and  all  that 
we  have  to  do  is  to  come  home  in 
penitence  and  humility,  trusting 
in  his  mercy  and  seeking  to  do 
his  will.  Whatever  is  more  than 
this  belongs  to  theology,  and  may 
possibly  be  important  in  that  field. 
But  the  prodigal's  duty  is  to  go 
home;  and  for  this  he  needs  no 
theory  of  the  atonement,  no  doc- 
trine of  substitution,  or  of  imputed 
righteousness,  or  of  ransom  paid 
to  the  devil,  or  of  governmental 
exigencies  happily  provided  for; 
but  solely  the  desire  to  find  the 
Father's  help  and  favor  and  for- 
giveness. And  this  conception  of 
God,  as  full  of  grace  and  compas- 


48  The  Christian  Life 

sion,  as  ready  to  forgive  the  peni- 
tent soul,  and  to  give  it  power  to 
become  the  child  of  God  in  the 
spirit,  is  the  central  idea  of  the 
gospel. 

If  these  things  are  so,  then  the 
essential  matter  of  Christian  teach- 
ing is  simplified.  God's  aim  is  to 
bring  men  to  the  recognition  of 
his  presence  and  purpose  in  their 
lives  and  to  a  filial  acceptance  of 
that  purpose  in  all  their  conduct. 
If  men  are  ignorant  of  that  pur- 
pose, we  must  teach  them.  If 
they  ignore  it,  or  turn  away  from 
it,  we  must  warn  them.  If  they 
seek  after  God,  we  must  declare 
his  infinite  nearness  and  his  gra- 
cious condescension.  If  they 
turn  from  their  evil  ways,  we 
must  proclaim  the  forgiveness  of 
sins.  The  whole  matter  will  be 
clear  if  we  bear  in  mind  what 
God's  purpose  is  for  men.  And 
the  duty  of  the  inquirer  is  equally 


A  Study  49 

plain.  Let  him  at  once  begin  to  do 
the  will  of  God  so  far  as  he  knows 
it,  trusting  in  the  Divine  mercy  for 
the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  for  all 
needed  help.  Let  the  wicked  for- 
sake his  way  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts;  and  let  him 
return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will 
have  mercy  upon  him ;  and  to  our 
God,  for  he  will  abundantly  par- 
don. But,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart,  the 
Lord  will  not  hear  me;  and  he 
ought  not  to  hear  me. 

What,  then,  does  God  require 
of  us  ?  Various  answers  are  given, 
all  of  which  come  to  the  same 
thing.  An  old  prophet  found  the 
requirement  in  doing  justly,  lov- 
ing mercy,  and  walking  humbly 
with  God.  Loving  submission 
and  active  obedience  to  the  will  of 
God,  is  another  formula.  Seek 
to  live  so  as  to  please  God  in  all 
things,  is  still  another.  Believe 
4 


50  The  Chj^stian  Life 

on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — that  is, 
become  his  disciple  and  follower — 
is  another.  But  they  all  mean 
the  same  thing.  We  are  not  re- 
quired to  have  affecting  views  of 
our  sins,  or  a  sense  of  our  deep  un- 
worthiness,  or  an  insight  into  the- 
ology of  any  sort,  but  we  are  re- 
quired to  surrender  ourselves  to 
God  to  do  his  will. 

But  we  are  not  yet  converted, 
or  bom  again,  or  saved.  What 
has  been  said  thus  far  smacks  of 
legality  and  good  works,  and  seems 
to  make  nothing  of  faith  and  the 
new  birth  and  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit ;  and  these  things  are  the 
very  gist  of  spiritual  religion. 

In  this  objection  we  have  an  al- 
most complete  list  of  the  confu- 
sion and  misunderstandings  which 
have  darkened  the  discussion  of 
this  subject.  We  must  consider 
them  singly. 


A  Study  51 

Underlying  this  objection  there 
is  a  secret  reference  to  the  theol- 
ogy of  abstraction.  Abstract  law 
and  abstract  justice  are  supposed 
to  have  claims  upon  us  which 
must  be  met  before  we  can  be- 
come children  of  God ;  and  surely 
our  thought  of  conversion  must 
largely  concern  itself  with  these. 
But  here  we  must  again  remind 
ourselves  that  these  questions  be- 
long to  speculative  theology  and 
not  to  experience.  If  we  were 
giving  a  philosophy  of  Christian 
doctrine,  these  questions  might 
come  up;  but  they  are  out  of 
place  when  we  are  preaching  the 
gospel.  And  we  must  further  re- 
mind ourselves  that  the  claims, 
whatever  they  may  be,  have  been 
met;  and  the  difficulties,  what- 
ever they  may  be,  have  been  re- 
moved ;  so  that  we  have  to  con- 
sider only  the  practical  aspects  of 
Christian  doctrine.     We  turn  over 


52  The  Christian  Life 

the  speculative  and  philosophical 
questions  to  the  theologian,  and 
continue  to  occupy  ourselves  with 
the  practical  life. 

Workings  Definitions 

There  are  many  important  the- 
ological terms  and  phrases  which, 
from  long  use  and  thoughtlessness, 
have  worn  so  smooth  as  to  have 
lost  most  of  their  meaning ;  and  the 
only  way  to  restore  them  to  signifi- 
cance seems  to  be  to  look  directly 
at  the  facts  from  which  the  terms 
arise.  Proceeding  in  this  way,  we 
discover  that  there  is  a  vast  deal 
of  wrong  thinking  in  the  world, 
not  merely  erroneous  thinking  as 
in  speculative  matters,  but  wrong 
practical  thinking.  Men  see 
things  out  of  their  right  relations. 
They  misjudge  values  and  invert 
their  relative  importance.  They 
have  their  minds  full  of  these 
misconceptions,  and  practical  con- 


A  Study  53 

fusion  and  misdirection  result. 
Hence  the  first  condition  of  a  new 
and  better  life  is  to  repent ;  that 
is,  men  must  change  their  minds 
or  their  ways  of  thinking  about 
things.  This  is  the  Christian,  or 
New  Testament,  idea  of  repent- 
ance ;  and  this  is  the  first  condition 
for  entering  into  the  kingdom  of 
God.  It  is  not  a  question  of  get- 
ting to  heaven,  but  of  entering  into 
that  kingdom  which  is  righteous- 
ness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  and,  of  course,  no  one  can 
enter  this  kingdom  except  by  at- 
taining to  the  spirit,  the  temper, 
the  way  of  thinking,  in  which 
the  kingdom  consists. 

Again,  men  are  traveling  the 
wrong  road  or  in  the  wrong  di- 
rection. They  are  moving  away 
from  life  and  from  the  highest 
things.  They  are  on  the  down- 
ward grade.  Hence  they  must 
be  converted;  that  is,  must  turn 


54  The  Christian  Life 

around,  if  they  would  enter  into 
life.  This  is  the  New  Testament 
idea  of  conversion ;  and  this  is  not 
to  be  understood  in  a  metaphysical 
sense,  as  implying  some  change  in 
the  substance  of  the  soul ;  nor  in 
a  theological  sense,  as  implying 
some  difficult  forensic  adjustment 
in  the  court  of  heaven  whereby 
the  antithesis  of  justice  and  mercy 
is  happily  mediated.  It  is  to  be 
understood  solely  as  implying  the 
opposition  between  the  contents 
and  direction  of  the  new  life  and 
those  of  the  old. 

In  the  same  way  the  new  birth 
is  to  be  understood.  If  we  con- 
sider the  contents  of  the  earthly 
life,  its  low  aims  and  maxims — 
and  hence  its  opposition  to  the 
life  of  the  Spirit — we  see  that  the 
change  required  for  passing  into 
the  spiritual  life  is  very  strikingly 
called  a  new  birth,  or  a  birth 
from  above.     St.  Paul  called  it  a 


A  Study  55 

resurrection  from  the  dead.  Both 
expressions  mean  the  same  thing, 
and  both  are  equally  metaphor- 
ical. They  are  to  be  understood 
from  the  side  of  life,  and  not  from 
the  side  of  theology.  When  thus 
understood,  they  are  striking  and 
expressive;  but  when  they  are 
taken  for  a  hidden  metaphysical 
process,  they  lose  all  intelligible 
meaning,  and  become  an  opaque 
theological  wonder.  Without 
doubt  the  Holy  Spirit  must  as- 
sist us  in  our  efforts.  The  weak 
will  must  be  strengthened,  the 
dull  conscience  must  be  enlight- 
ened, the  wayward  affections  must 
be  fixed ;  and  in  all  this  we  need 
the  co-working  of  God.  But  we 
always  need  this.  And  whatever 
mystery  may  attach  thereto,  its 
effect  for  us,  and  the  only  intelli- 
gible meaning  we  can  ascribe  to 
it,  must  consist  in  the  turning  of 
heart  and  will  toward  God,  in  the 


56  The  Christian  Life 

set  purpose  to  please  and  to  serve 
him. 

The  same  thing  must  be  said 
of  salvation  or  being  saved.  This 
also  is  to  be  ethically  understood. 
What  may  be  possible  in  the  way 
of  a  forensic  understanding,  we 
leave  to  theologians  to  decide; 
but  in  any  case,  salvation  must 
be  ethically  understood,  or  we  are 
landed  in  artificial  hocus-pocus,  if 
not  in  downright  immorality.  To 
be  sure,  St.  Paul  used  the  terms 
of  the  Roman  lav/  very  freely  to 
set  forth  the  great  salvation,  and 
in  this  has  generally  been  fol- 
lowed by  Protestant  theologians. 
But  it  has  long  been  apparent 
that  these  terms  are  not  to  be 
taken  in  a  rigid  literal  sense. 
They  must  be  seen  as  metaphors 
or  ways  of  putting,  and  must  be 
interpreted  from  the  side  of  the 
moral  life,  and  not  by  the  dic- 
tionary alone.     To  love  God  and 


A  Sttidy  57 

to  seek  to  serve  and  please  him 
is  the  sum  of  human  duty,  and  it 
is  forever  incredible  that  God 
should  demand  any  more  or  be 
satisfied  with  any  less.  The  Di- 
vine aim  is  to  bring  men  into 
the  loving  recognition  and  accept- 
ance of  the  Divine  will.  For- 
giveness by  the  Heavenly  Father 
is  no  more  difficult  than  forgive- 
ness by  an  earthly  father,  and  in 
both  cases  what  is  desired  is  the 
establishment  of  the  filial  spirit 
in  the  heart  and  will  of  the  way- 
ward child.  And  this  is  salva- 
tion in  the  ethical  sense,  and  the 
only  salvation  with  which  we 
have  any  practical  concern.  Sal- 
vation conceived  as  something 
possessed  by  one  and  not  pos- 
sessed by  another  of  similar  spirit 
and  life,  or  conceived  as  depend- 
ing on  some  device  of  celestial 
bookkeeping,  or  as  depending  on 
the  performance  of  some  rite  or 


58  The  Christian  Life 

the  utterance  of  some  formula, 
has  no  moral  contents  at  all,  but 
sinks  to  the  level  of  magical  in- 
cantations. 

This  matter  of  salvation  and 
forgiveness  has  often  been  con- 
fused, even  by  the  theologians, 
from  failure  to  view  it  as  a  rela- 
tion of  moral  persons.  In  their 
desire  to  save  justice,  they  have 
sometimes  become  so  confused  as 
to  represent  justice  as  demanding 
a  certain  quantum  of  penalty,  but 
quite  indifferent  as  to  who  fur- 
nished or  endured  it.  This  is  a 
most  striking  illustration  of  the 
confusion  which  may  be  wrought 
by  a  devotion  to  abstraction^. 
When  it  is  a  question  only  of 
things,  one  person  may  take  an- 
other's place,  as  when  one  pays 
another's  debt;  but  when  it  is  a 
question  of  moral  persons  and 
moral  relations,  such  substitution 
is  morally  impossible  in  any  lit- 


A  Study  59 

eral  sense.  Imagine  an  ungrate- 
ful son  who  should  demand  that 
his  father  should  receive  him  into 
all  the  privileges  and  affection  of 
the  family  because  some  one  else 
had  performed  the  duties  which 
the  son  had  neglected  or  rejected. 
The  father  who  could  tolerate  so 
odious  a  demand  must  himself  be 
hopelessly  confused  mentally,  or 
else  indifferent  to  moral  distinc- 
tions and  proprieties.  Plainly, 
the  only  salvation  the  moral  na- 
ture can  recognize  is  one  which 
results  in  the  re-establishment  of 
the  filial  spirit  and  the  filial  life. 
The  truth  in  the  traditional  doc- 
trine on  this  subject  is,  that  not 
even  love  can  arbitrarily  forgive 
or  cancel  consequences.  This 
would  make  forgiveness  itself  im- 
moral. The  curse  can  be  removed 
only  by  changing  the  heart,  and 
setting  healing  and  restorative 
agencies  at  work,  by  which  the 


6o  The  Christian  Life 

evil  consequences  may  be  elim- 
inated, as  health  overcomes  dis- 
ease. But  this,  which  is  the  es- 
sential truth  of  the  atonement,  is 
often  hidden  behind  abstractions 
which  caricature  or  deny  it. 

But  what  of  the  supernatural 
in  the  religious  life?  We  have 
spoken  of  men  changing  their 
minds  and  converting  themselves, 
whereas  they  supremely  need  the 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this 
work.  These  reflections  will  nat- 
urally occur  to  those  who  fail  to 
distinguish  between  the  theolog- 
ical standpoint  and  that  of  con- 
scious experience.  But  what  we 
have  said  involves  no  denial  of 
the  supernatural.  Without  doubt 
men  need  help  from  above  in  ef- 
fecting these  changes,  but  no  more 
than  they  need  it  in  the  spiritual 
life  in  general.  But  however 
much  supernatural  assistance  may 
be  needed,  the  thing  to  be  reached 


A  Study  6 1 

is  the  changed  mind  and  heart, 
or  the  change  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing and  direction  of  life.  And 
the  supernatural  reveals  itself  in 
this  power  to  become  the  children 
of  God,  and  not  at  all  in  any 
scenic  or  hippodromic  manifesta- 
tions. In  the  former  sense  we 
affirm  the  supernatural  with  all 
conviction.  And  the  religious 
teacher  must  not  allow  ignorant 
and  excitable  persons  to  mistake 
neurological  disturbances,  without 
any  ethical  contents,  for  manifes- 
tations of  the  Spirit.  Untrained 
persons,  of  wonder-loving  mental 
habit,  easily  fall  into  this  mis- 
take, and  they  must  be  guarded 
against  it. 

And  from  this  concrete  ethical 
standpoint,  again,  the  meaning  of 
sin  and  the  sinful  life  is  equally 
clear.  The  gist  of  the  sinful  life 
consists  in  the  willingness  to  do 
wrong  and  the  unwillingness  to  do 


62  The  Christian  Life 

right.  Some  dealers  in  abstrac- 
tions have  thought  to  find  some- 
thing deeper  than  this,  and  they 
have  proclaimed  that  sin  is  a  na- 
ture, and  that  its  nature  is  guilt. 
With  such  notions,  nothing  but  a 
web  of  abstract  fictions  can  be 
woven.  And  others,  who  have 
rejected  this  view,  have  often  been 
so  occupied  with  denying  the  ex- 
istence of  any  abstract  sin  that 
they  have  overlooked  the  undeni- 
able fact  that  there  is  a  good  deal 
of  concrete  wrong-doing  among 
men,  and  that  this  wrong-doing 
must  be  done  away  with  if  men 
are  to  enter  into  life.  It  would 
tend  to  real  progress  if  religious 
teachers  would  postpone  the  study 
of  sin  in  the  abstract  until  we 
have  overcome  this  willingness  to 
do  wrong  and  this  unwillingness 
to  do  right,  from  which  both  so- 
ciety and  the  individual  so  griev- 


A  Study  63 

ously  suffer.  If  this  state  of  mind 
could  be  replaced  by  the  love 
and  practice  of  righteousness,  we 
should  have  no  practical  concern 
about  abstract  sin. 

Faith  and  works  have  been  re- 
ferred to,  and  salvation  by  faith 
has  been  mentioned  as  all-impor- 
tant. But  here,  too,  confusion 
has  reigned.  This  antithesis  of 
faith  and  works  owes  its  exist- 
ence to  a  very  low  and  crude 
moral  conception.  When  works 
are  mechanically  conceived,  as  in 
ancient  or  modern  Pharisaism,  it 
is  plain  that  they  remain  external 
to  the  spirit  and  count  for  noth- 
ing. No  amount  of  them  could 
have  any  significance  for  the  spir- 
itual development  of  soul.  But 
when  it  is  seen  that  good  works, 
in  any  ethical  sense  of  the  phrase, 
involve  as  their  supreme  condi- 
tion the  inner  loyalty  and  devo- 


64  The  Qifistian  Life 

tion  of  heart  and  will,  we  see 
tliat  there  is  no  reason  to  be 
afraid  of  them. 

Again,  when  the  moral  ideal 
is  at  al]  developed,  there  is  no 
satisfaction  in  any  actual  attain- 
ment of  our  own ;  for  the  ideal 
is  ever  in  advance  and  rebukes 
us.  Hence  no  one  of  any  spir- 
itual attainment  can  ever  reach 
peace  through  any  good  works  of 
his  own,  but  only  by  trusting  in 
the  infinite  grace  above  him. 
We  are  perfectly  clear  that  our 
salvation  is  of  grace,  not  of  debt ; 
it  is  not  of  works,  lest  any  man 
should  boast;  it  is  not  of  our- 
selves, it  is  the  gift  of  God.  As 
the  child  has  its  standing  in  the 
family,  not  by  the  value  of  its 
services,  but  rather  in  and  through 
the  parental  love  which  gives 
value  to  all  the  child  does,  so  we 
have  our  standing  in  the  divine 
family,  not  through  the  value  of 


A  Study  65 

our  services,  but  rather  and  only 
through  the  infinite  grace  which 
gives  all  the  value  our  poor  best 
service  may  possess.  This  is  that 
salvation  by  grace  which  is  the 
glory  of  the  gospel.  And  our 
trust  in  this  grace,  our  yield- 
ing ourselves  up  to  it  in  obedience 
and  submission,  is  our  faith. 
And  that  we  can  be  truly  saved — 
that  is,  lifted  Godward — only  in 
this  way,  is  manifest.  No  me- 
chanical round  can  lift  us.  No  me- 
chanical round  has  merit.  We 
must  trust  in  the  grace  above  us, 
and  we  must  struggle  toward  the 
ideal  it  holds  out.  Only  thus  can 
we  rise.  However  we  stumble  or 
fall,  we  must  not  abandon  our 
trust  in,  and  devotion  to,  the 
grace  revealed  from  on  high. 
Understood  in  this  way,  salvation 
by  faith  is  one  of  the  deepest 
truths  in  religion.  But  when 
faith  is  conceived  as  a  bare  as- 
5 


66  The  Qiristian  Life 

sent  to  any  theological  dogma 
whatever,  it  becomes  unfruitful 
and  mechanical,  and  sometimes 
immoral  and  pernicious. 

We  have  made  this  excursion 
into  theology  because  the  phrases 
examined  constantly  recur  in  the 
language  of  experience,  and  give 
it  a  peculiar  form.  Our  convic- 
tion is,  that  these  phrases  are 
largely  misunderstood  from  tak- 
ing the  implied  metaphor  for  a 
literal  fact,  or  from  interpreting 
them  by  the  dictionary  instead  of 
by  life.  But  however  this  may 
be,  it  is  clear  that  the  theological 
doctrine  concerning  these  matters 
must  not  be  confused  with  the 
data  of  conscious  experience. 
Whatever  mysterious  God-ward 
relations  these  doctrines  may 
have  is  no  practical  concern  of 
ours,  and  will  doubtless  be  ar- 
ranged for  without  our  aid.  For 
the  consciousness  of  the  disciple. 


A  Study  67 

nothing  is  to  be  demanded  or  ex- 
pected beyond  the  surrender,  the 
devotion,  the  obedience,  of  the 
filial  spirit.  Theology  is  good, 
important,  and  even  necessary  in 
its  place;  but  we  do  not  bring 
men  to  God  by  means  of  theology. 
Nor  should  we  confuse  the  mind 
of  any  seeker  after  God  by  trying 
to  cast  his  thought  and  experi- 
ence in  any  dogmatic  mold ;  as  if 
one  could  not  find  God  without 
setting  forth  a  scheme  of  evan- 
gelical theology,  duly  recognizing 
the  several  persons  of  the  Trinity 
and  their  respective  offices,  speci- 
fying the  provisions  of  the  atone- 
ment, and  going  in  order  through 
the  program  of  repentance,  faith, 
justification,  regeneration,  adop- 
tion, and  sanctification.  What- 
ever value  such  a  program  may 
have  is  theological,  not  psycho- 
logical ;  it  represents  abstractions 
of  theory  rather  than  facts  of  con- 


68  The  Christian  Life 

sciousness.  The  two  points  of 
view  should  never  be  confounded. 
The  life  of  trust  and  obedience 
is  not  to  be  secured  by  an  exam- 
ination in  the  catechism ;  and  for 
bringing  sinners  into  the  king- 
dom of  God,  we  need  no  more 
theology  than  is  contained  in  the 
Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son. 

The  Witness  of  the  Spirit 

In  our  previous  study  we  have 
distinguished  the  language  of  ex- 
perience from  that  of  theology, 
and  have  warned  against  con- 
founding them.  But  now  we 
come  to  the  witness  of  the  Spirit ; 
and  this  is  said  to  be  a  fact  of 
experience,  and  not  merely  a  doc- 
trine of  theology.  And  it  is  fur- 
ther said  by  many  that  no  one 
may  count  himself  a  true  disciple, 
or  member  of  the  divine  house- 
hold, until  he  has  received  this 


A  Study  69 

witness.  And  many  good  persons 
— some  of  the  best  indeed — have 
been  greatly  troubled  thereby. 
The  phrase  seems  to  call  for 
a  miraculous  manifestation,  in 
which  some  external  power  stands 
manifestly  apart  from  ourselves, 
and  testifies  that  we  are  received 
into  the  Divine  favor.  And  many 
persons,  like  the  minister  before 
mentioned,  have  watched  and 
waited  for  some  such  manifesta- 
tion, and  as  nothing  has  ever  hap- 
pened to  them  which  contained 
any  such  psychological  break,  or 
which  revealed  any  such  appari- 
tion of  another  personality  within 
the  field  of  consciousness,  they 
are  left  to  doubt  whether  they 
ever  had  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
And  as  this  witness  is  supposed 
to  be  a  necessary  mark  of  disci- 
pleship,  they  are  left  in  doubt 
whether  they  are  members  of  the 
divine  family  at  all.      There  is 


70  The  Christian  Life 

Special  need  of  clearing  up  our 
thought  on  this  subject. 

Two  considerations  must  be 
premised:  One  is,  that  the  doc- 
trine, whatever  it  may  be,  must 
not  be  held  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  void  the  gospel.  The  other 
is,  that  the  experience,  whatever 
it  may  be,  can  not  be  confined  to 
any  single  religious  body. 

The  first  point  is  by  no  means 
always  regarded.  That  one  should 
commit  himself  in  faith  and  obe- 
dience to  the  keeping  and  service 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  is  not  thought 
to  be  enough.  That  one  should 
enter  upon  the  life  of  disciple- 
ship,  trusting  in  the  promises  of 
the  gospel  and  seeking  to  do  God's 
will,  would  not  suffice.  One  might 
do  all  this,  and  still  have  no  right 
to  assume  the  place  of  a  son  in 
the  Father's  house.  For  this  he 
must  wait  until  he  receives  the 
witness;    and  the  result  often  is. 


A  Study  71 

that  the  object  of  faith  and  trust 
is  not  Christ  and  the  Father  whom 
he  revealed,  but  rather  and  only 
certain  feelings  in  the  disciple. 
If  these  are  present,  he  has  confi- 
dence ;  if  absent,  he  has  not  found 
the  Lord,  or  the  Lord  has  hidden 
his  face.  Thus  the  gospel  itself 
is  made  void  by  thrusting  some 
subjective  test  between  the  soul 
and  its  Savior,  the  only  object  of 
faith  and  trust. 

And  that  this  is  no  fictitious 
danger  appears  from  the  follow- 
ing utterance  of  a  distinguished 
Methodist  ecclesiastic  the  past 
summer:  "John  Wesley  was  sent 
out  to  preach  a  knowable  relig- 
ion— that  a  man  might  know  that 
his  sins  are  forgiven.  There  is 
only  one  way  for  him  to  learn 
that.  Pardon  is  a  change  in  the 
Divine  mind  concerning  the  sin- 
ner; whereas  God  regarded  him 
as  a  guilty  sinner,  he  now  regards 


72  The  Christian  Life 

him  as  a  pardoned  sinner.  No  one 
but  God  knows  this  change  till 
he  tells  it.  This  is  the  old  doc- 
trine of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
When  we  get  a  man  down  before 
the  altar,  we  do  not  tell  him  his 
sins  are  forgiven.  We  do  not 
know.  We  simply  hold  him  to 
it  till  God  tells  him;  then  the 
sinner  knows  it." 

According  to  this  master  in 
Israel,  then,  it  would  seem  that 
we  may  not  venture  on  or  rest  in 
the  promises  of  God  without  this 
special  experience.  We  may  in- 
deed commit  ourselves  to  his  serv- 
ice in  faith  and  obedience,  trust- 
ing in  his  mercy;  but  we  may 
not  have  any  confidence  that  our 
Heavenly  Father  accepts  us  even 
then,  because  we  can  not  tell 
what  takes  place  in  the  Divine 
mind.  This  is  a  heresy  from 
every  standpoint.  Scriptural  and 
Methodistic  alike.     Wesley  him- 


A  Study  73 

self  expressly  rejected  this  inter- 
pretation of  the  doctrine. 

Since  I  began  writing,  I  have 
had  a  concrete  illustration  of  the 
mischief  of  such  indiscriminating 
teaching.  A  ministerial  corre- 
spondent tells  me  of  a  woman  of 
more  than  ordinary  intelligence 
in  his  congregation,  who  for  nine- 
teen years  wandered  in  a  horror 
of  great  darkness  because  of  such 
erroneous  teaching.  She  had  been 
told:  '*Do  n't  take  anybody's  word. 
When  you  are  forgiven,  you  will 
know  it.  God  will  tell  you."  Al- 
most the  exact  language,  it  will 
be  observ^ed,  of  the  dignitary  be- 
fore mentioned. 

And  the  second  point  men- 
tioned must  also  be  borne  in 
mind.  The  witness  of  the  Spirit 
as  an  experience  of  the  Christian 
can  not  be  limited  to  any  relig- 
ious body.  Conceived  as  a  doc- 
trine, it  might  well  be  held  by  a 


74  The  Christian  Life 

single  body;  but  conceived  as  an 
experience,  it  must  be  the  com- 
mon property  of  all  saints,  so  far 
as  it  is  necessary  to  saintship. 
It  would  be  grotesque  to  the  last 
degree  to  suppose  that  God  does 
something  for  Methodist  saints 
which  he  does  not  do  for  Baptist, 
or  Congregational,  or  Presbyte- 
rian saints ;  and  it  would  be  an 
impossible  lack  of  charity  to  hold 
that  only  Methodists  are  saints. 
Most  religious  bodies  have  a  few 
disciples  of  rigor  and  vigor  who 
work  out  a  sort  of  high-church- 
ism  for  their  own  people,  and 
question  the  discipleship  of  other 
bodies;  but  no  sane  Methodist 
would  venture  to  construct  his 
high-churchism  on  this  line  of 
the  witness.  And  this  fact  shows 
either  that  the  doctrine  must  be 
a  theological  one  and  not  a  datum 
of  experience,  or  else  that  the  ex- 
perience  itself,  whatever  it  may 


A  Study  75 

be,  is  not  so  definite  as  to  exclude 
varying  interpretations. 

Returning  now  to  the  doctrine, 
we  find  theologians  very  uncer- 
tain about  it.  There  is  general 
agreement  that  it  is  most  impor- 
tant, but  there  is  little  agreement 
as  to  what  it  means.  That  the 
phrase  itself  is  not  to  be  taken 
in  strict  literalness  is  manifest. 
No  outside  being  appears  within 
the  disciple's  consciousness  and 
literally  testifies  to  a  celestial  fact 
concerning  his  standing  in  the 
court  of  heaven.  This  is  what 
our  traditional  language  would 
lead  us  to  expect,  but  there  is  no 
warrant  for  such  expectation.  The 
phrase  itself  as  used  by  Paul  in 
the  classical  passage — Romans 
viil,  1 6 — seems  to  grow  out  of  the 
ancient  custom  of  adoption.  Paul 
is  trying  to  make  his  readers 
know  the  grace  and  wonder  of 
the  great  salvation,    and    avails 


76  The  Christian  Life 

himself  of  all  tlie  aids  which  fa- 
miliar customs  of  society  furnish. 
Among  others  he  hits  upon  the 
custom  of  adoption  familiar  to 
the  ancient  world,  and  says :  We 
are  not  aliens  and  strangers,  but 
we  are  adopted  into  the  divine 
family.  God  has  sent  forth  into 
our  hearts  the  Spirit  of  adop- 
tion whereby  the  filial  spirit  is 
wrought  in  us  and  we  are  en- 
abled to  look  up  to  God  as  our  Fa- 
ther. And  having  taken  up  this 
striking  and  suggestive  figure,  his 
thought  runs  on  to  complete  it. 
For  this  act  of  adoption  was  not 
done  in  a  corner  and  out  of  sight, 
but  in  public  and  before  witnesses, 
that  there  might  be  no  question 
about  it  forever  after.  And  with 
this  thought  he  adds:  And  the 
Spirit  itself,  that  same  Spirit  of 
adoption,  is  a  fellow-witness  with 
our  spirits,  not  to  our  spirits,  but 
a  fellow-witness  of  the  fact  that 


A  Study  77 

we  are  children  of  God.  If  Paul 
had  not  been  familiar  with  Ro- 
man law,  there  would  have  been 
no  doctrine  of  adoption  and  no 
doctrine  of  the  witness. 

It  is  not  now  a  question  of  what 
the  work  of  the  Spirit  within  or 
upon  the  soul  may  be,  or  what 
the  function  of  the  Spirit  may  be 
in  the  regeneration  and  sanctifi- 
cation  of  men.  It  may  be  the 
Spirit  which  works  in  us  the  filial 
mind  and  heart,  which  is  the  es- 
sential meaning  of  adoption.  But 
these  are  theological  questions, 
with  which  we  have  no  present 
concern.  We  inquire  only  what 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit  may 
mean  as  an  event  in  the  conscious 
experience  of  believers.  And  it 
is  plain  that  this  can  be  decided 
only  by  experience,  and  not  by 
lexicons  and  dictionaries.  No  ety- 
mological analysis  of  a  metaphor 
will  reveal  its  meaning. 


78  The  Christian  Life 

The  uncertainty  of  theological 
thought  on  this  subject  is  largely 
due  to  the  perennial  confusion  of 
the  standpoints  of  theology  and 
consciousness;  and  the  aberra- 
tions are  due  to  the  attempt  to 
construct  the  doctrine  as  a  matter 
of  experience  by  analyzing  the 
metaphor.  The  distinction  be- 
tween the  direct  and  the  indirect 
witness  illustrates  the  uncertainty. 
The  latter  is  an  inference  from 
the  discerned  presence  of  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit;  but  this  is 
not  thought  to  exhaust  the  doc- 
trine. According  to  Wesley,  the 
direct  witness  of  the  Spirit  is 
"an  inward  impression  upon  the 
souls  of  believers  whereby  the 
Spirit  of  God  directly  testifies  to 
their  spirits  that  they  are  children 
of  God.*^  This  seems  to  be  clear, 
but  it  is  not.  If  the  **  inward  im- 
pression "  is  produced  by  God,  yet 
so  that  God  himself  does  not  ap- 


A  Study  79 

pear  in  any  supernatural  mani- 
festation, then  we  have  a  theolog- 
ical doctrine  concerning  the  source 
of  the  impression ;  but  the  witness 
is  indirect.  We  have  no  super- 
nal manifestation,  but  the  heart 
is  "  strangely  warmed."  But  Mr. 
Wesley  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  willing  to  affirm  any  miracu- 
lous appearance,  but  only  the  con- 
viction wrought  in  us  by  the  Spirit 
that  we  are  the  children  of  God ; 
and  this  leaves  us,  so  far  as  the 
Spirit  is  concerned,  with  a  theo- 
logical doctrine  rather  than  a  fact 
of  consciousness.  An  experience 
wrought  in  us  by  the  Spirit  is 
one  thing.  An  experience  in 
which  the  Spirit  is  a  factor  of 
our  consciousness  may  be  quite 
another. 

Wesley's  uncertainty  on  this 
point  comes  out  clearly  in  the  se- 
ries of  letters  to  ]\Ir.  John  Smith 
where  this  question  is  discussed. 


8o  The  Christian  Life 

The  person  who  writes  under  the 
name  of  John  Smith  presses  for 
a  definition  of  the  doctrine,  and 
especially  seeks  to  know  whether 
the  experience  involves  any  su- 
pernatural or  miraculous  mani- 
festation. Wesley  is  embarrassed 
by  the  insistence,  and  finally  falls 
back  on  the  statement  that  he  holds 
the  doctrine  because  it  is  revealed 
in  the  Scriptures — a  fact  which 
shows  that  he  had  not  clearly  dis- 
tinguished between  the  doctrine 
as  a  truth  of  theology  and  as  a 
fact  of  consciousness.  There  is 
no  need  to  fall  back  on  the  Scrip- 
tures for  proof  of  anything  which 
we  immediately  experience.  He 
also  admits  elsewhere  that  he  has 
known  a  few  good  persons  who 
do  not  seem  to  have  had  the  wit- 
ness. Nevertheless,  it  is  a  doc- 
trine of  Scripture,  and  must  be 
maintained  on  that  ground.  But 
by  this  time  we   have  a  phrase 


A  Study  8l 

which  we  feel  bound  to  use  rather 
than  a  doctrine  which  we  under- 
stand. At  all  events,  it  is  not  an 
experience  which  can  be  made  a 
test  of  discipleship ;  for  good  per- 
sons exist  who  have  not  had  it. 
Returning  now  to  life,  the 
Christian  fact  is  this:  The  sin- 
cere and  continued  attempt  to  be 
disciples  of  Christ  results  in  the 
conviction  that  we  are  in  the 
right  way,  that  we  are  on  the 
Lord's  side  and  he  is  on  our  side  : 
and  this  conviction  grows  from 
more  to  more  as  the  life  broadens 
and  deepens.  The  new  life  takes 
firmer  hold  and  strikes  deeper 
root ;  and  as  the  soul  grows  in 
grace  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  this  life  becomes  more  and 
more  rooted  in  the  conviction  of 
its  divine  origin.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  Christian  teaching,  the 
believer  will  adjust  his  experi- 
ence to  the  forms  of  Christian 
6 


82  The  Omstian  Life 

thought  and  doctrine ;  and  as  we 
view  the  Spirit  as  the  immediate 
agent  in  the  purification,  sancti- 
fication,  and  upbuilding  of  the 
soul,  we  naturally  come  to  re- 
gard our  graces,  or  strength,  or 
joy,  our  peace,  our  rest  in  God, 
as  wrought  in  us  by  the  Spirit,  as 
the  marks  of  his  presence,  as  the 
witness  he  perpetually  bears  in 
us  to  our  being  children  of  God. 
And  this  is  all  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  means  in  general.  What 
peculiar  manifestations  it  may 
please  God  to  make  in  certain 
crises  of  life  or  moments  of  spir- 
itual exaltation,  or  what  revela- 
tions he  may  make  to  particular 
persons,  we  may  not  decide ;  but 
such  things  are  not  to  be  de- 
manded of  any  one  as  conditions 
or  marks  of  sonship.  For  the 
great  body  of  believers  the  fact 
of  experience  will  be  what  we  have 
described.    If  any  claim  that  they 


A  Study  83 

have  had  more  abundant  manifes- 
tations, we  do  not  deny  that  it 
may  be  so.  At  the  same  time  we 
reserve  the  right  to  apply  to  all 
such  claims  the  supreme  test :  By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 
If,  as  often  happens,  these  alleged 
manifestations  are  accompanied 
by  no  increase  of  moral  and  relig- 
ious effectiveness,  they  will  have 
no  practical  significance ;  and  if, 
as  is  sometimes  the  case,  the  re- 
ceivers of  the  alleged  manifesta- 
tions are  not  remarkable  for  men- 
tal force  and  moral  character, 
there  will  be  good  ground  for 
thinking  that  thev  have  misheard 
the  voices. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  witness  as 
thus  described  is  no  witness  but 
only  an  inference,  the  answer  is, 
that  the  meaning  of  a  doctrine 
can  not  be  fixed  by  analyzing  a 
metaphor,  and  that  this  is  the 
only  witness  which  it  pleases  God 


84  The  Christian  Life 


to  give  to  most  of  his  children. 
But  when  the  doctrine  is  so  under- 
stood as  to  subordinate  even  our 
faith  in  Christ  and  his  gospel  to 
some  form  of  emotional  experi- 
ence, it  becomes  a  pestilent  her- 
esy. We  are  not  called  to  have 
experiences,  or  witnesses,  or  man- 
ifestations of  any  sort,  but  to  be 
followers  of  Jesus.  Whatever  ex- 
periences of  joy  or  peace  or  aspi- 
ration may  come  in  this  life  of 
discipleship  are  to  be  welcomed, 
but  they  are  never  to  be  erected 
into  tests  of  salvation. 

In  fact,  this  doctrine  of  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit  in  our  Church 
is  to  be  historically  rather  than 
exegetically  or  psychologically 
understood.  We  gather  its  his- 
torical meaning  from  the  errors 
against  which  the  founders  of 
Methodism  aimed  their  protest. 
These  were  twofold.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  State  Church  had  largely 


A  Study  85 

fallen  a  prey  to  sacerdotalism  and 
religious  mechanism.  What  with 
baptismal  regeneration  and  sacra- 
mentarianism,  the  masses  of  its 
adherents  had  fallen  into  the  no- 
tion that  the  Church  would  look 
after  their  salvation;  and  thus 
they  failed  to  attain  to  any  per- 
sonal piety.  In  opposition  to  all 
this,  the  Methodist  fathers  sum- 
moned men  to  heart  religion,  set- 
ting forth  the  worthlessness  of 
forms,  rites,  proxies,  and  insisting 
that  every  one  should  for  himself 
experience  the  grace  of  God  in 
the  soul.  To  the  hearsay  and 
magic  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
and  the  mechanism  of  rites  and 
institutions,  they  opposed  the  self- 
evidencing  life  of  the  Spirit. 

Again,  at  that  time  both  the 
State  and  the  Nonconforming 
Churches  were  largely  under  the 
influence  of  Calvinistic  doctrine, 
and  also  of  the  notion  that  relig- 


86  The  Christian  Life 

ion  is  pre-eminently  a  matter  of 
orthodox  belief.  The  Calvinistic 
teaching  concerning  the  persever- 
ance of  the  saints  made  it  morally 
unsafe  to  teach  a  doctrine  of  as- 
surance ;  and  the  heresy  of  ortho- 
doxy tended  to  reduce  religion  to 
a  barren  intellectual  assent  to  no- 
tional dogmas.  In  addition,  God's 
goodness  was  so  limited  in  any 
case,  and  the  outlook  for  man  was 
so  grim,  that  there  was  little  room 
or  reason  for  joy  in  religion. 

Against  all  these  errors  our 
fathers  protested.  For  them,  re- 
ligion must  be  more  than  a  ma- 
chinery of  rites  and  sacraments, 
and  more  than  correctness  of  be- 
lief. It  was  no  hearsay  matter, 
but  a  conscious  life,  which  found 
its  great  witness  in  itself.  They 
also  denied  with  all  vehemence 
the  Calvinistic  conception  of  God 
and  his  government,  and  thus 
made  love  and  joy  possible  once 


A  Study  87 

more.  And  to  express  this  con- 
viction of  life  at  first  hand,  and 
this  joy  in  the  Lord,  they  very 
naturally  fell  back  on  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit.  In  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time  it  was  prac- 
tically a  new  doctrine,  or  a  redis- 
covery of  an  old  one.  But  the 
essential  thing  in  it  was  the  denial 
of  the  Calvinistic  nightmare,  the 
emphasis  on  personal  religion,  and 
the  spiritual  assurance  which 
arises  in  the  life  of  faith  and 
obedience.  This  was  historically 
the  essential  meaning  and  strength 
of  the  doctrine,  and  this  it  was 
that  kept  it  sane  and  sweet.  It 
was  mainly  a  practical  doctrine, 
and  it  was  only  under  polemical 
stress  that  it  ran  off  into  doubt- 
ful exegesis  and  into  theological 
and  metaphysical  interpretations. 
Thus  the  doctrine  became  promi- 
nent in  our  Church,  and  while 
thus  practically  held,  it  was  true 


88  The  Christian  Life 

and  fundamental.  The  attempt 
to  give  it  a  theoretical  standing 
was  rather  confusing  than  other- 
wise. The  multitudinous  experi- 
ences of  joy,  and  even  of  emo- 
tional excitement,  were  gathered 
up  into  the  doctrine;  and  all 
these  were  accepted  as  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit,  because  that  was 
the  way  in  which  we  regarded  the 
matter.  Nowadays  more  discrim- 
ination is  needed ;  but  the  essen- 
tial contention  of  the  fathers  must 
never  be  lost  sight  of,  that  per- 
sonal religion  is  the  ideal  of  re- 
ligious training  and  development, 
and  that  this  personal  life  must 
justify  itself  as  true  and  divine 
within  the  consciousness  of  the 
disciple  himself.  At  the  same 
time  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
this  consciousness  will  never  be 
found  by  looking  for  it,  or  by  any 
painful  inspection  of  our  spiritual 
states,  but  only  by  building  our- 


A  Study  89 

selves  up  in  loving  trust  and  act- 
ive obedience  on  our  most  holy 
faith  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

Practical  Misconceptions 

The  training  and  development 
of  souls  as  the  children  of  God  is 
God's  essential  purpose  in  the  cre- 
ation of  men.  Our  human  life  is 
to  be  dealt  with  from  this  point 
of  view ;  and  the  religious  teacher 
must  fashion  his  instruction  and 
direct  his  effort  in  accordance  with 
this  fundamental  truth.  His  aim 
must  be  to  help  men  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  Divine  purpose, 
and  to  bring  them  into  obedience 
to  it.  This  recognition  of  the 
Divine  will,  this  filial  trust  and 
obedience,  are  the  heart  of  relig- 
ion and  the  central  meaning  of 
salvation.  But  the  attainment  of 
this  end  is  often  hindered,  and 
even  thwarted,  by  misconceptions 


90  The  Christian  Life 

against  which  we  must  be  on  our 
guard. 

The  emphasis  which  our  Church 
has  placed  upon  the  emotional  as- 
pects of  religion  has  not  infre- 
quently led  to  grave  distortions  of 
the  truth.  Emotion  is  good ;  and 
an  emotionless  religion  would  be 
a  very  questionable  affair.  Never- 
theless it  is  easy  to  invert  the  true 
order,  and  this  has  often  been 
done.  Attention  has  been  with- 
drawn from  the  solemn  surrender 
of  the  will  and  life  to  God  in  order 
to  engage  in  a  barren  hunt  after 
emotions.  This  is  inverted  in 
every  way,  both  religiously  and 
psychologically.  We  must  make 
clear  to  the  inquirer  that  he  is  to 
consider  himself  as  no  longer  his 
own,  but  as  being  in  all  things 
the  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and 
the  servant  of  God,  The  exceed- 
ing breadth  and  depth  and  height 
of   the   commandment   must   be 


A  Study  91 

made  plain,  so  that  he  may  see 
how  all-inclusive  is  the  service  of 
God.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
emotions  are  never  to  be  aimed 
at  as  things  by  themselves  at  all. 
In  order  to  be  wholesome  and  ra- 
tional, emotions  must  spring  from 
ideas ;  and  religious  emotions  must 
spring  from  religious  ideas.  When 
sought  by  themselves  and  for  them- 
selves, they  have  neither  rational 
nor  moral  significance,  but  are 
purely  neurological  or  patholog- 
ical. Religious  emotions  of  this 
sort  differ  in  nothing  from  the 
excitement  of  the  howling  or 
whirling  dervdshes.  This  is  the 
source  of  the  marked  ethical 
weakness  of  popular  revival  serv- 
ices, and  of  the  lack  of  moral  fiber 
in  so  many  alleged  conversions. 

It  follows  from  this  that  relig- 
ious emotions  are  not  to  be  di- 
rectly sought.  They  are  to  come 
as  the  unforced  attendants  of  our 


92  The  Christian  Life 

religious  faith  and  devotion  and 
obedience.  When  thus  coming, 
they  are  wholesome,  helpful,  and 
natural.  In  every  other  case  they 
are  unwholesome,  harmful,  and 
unnatural.  Indeed,  emotions,  as 
an  ajffection  of  the  sensibility, 
have  so  complex  a  root,  and  are 
so  complicated  with  physical  con- 
ditions, that  they  are  generally 
worthless  as  a  test  of  will  and 
character.  Even  those  relations 
in  daily  life  which  are  founded  on 
affection,  as  the  relations  of  the 
family,  admit  of  no  test  of  the 
emotional  sort.  Devotion  shows 
itself  chiefly  in  service ;  and  it  is 
only  at  special  times,  in  some  cri- 
sis perhaps,  that  the  emotional 
sensibility  is  deeply  stirred.  Love 
itself  abides  in  the  will  rather 
than  in  the  feeling,  and  its  dis- 
tinguishing mark  consists  in  the 
set  purpose  to  please  and  to  serve. 
And  this  is  true  of  our  love  for 


A  Study  93 

God.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the 
consecration  of  the  life  and  the 
devotion  of  the  will ;  not  in  ebul- 
litions of  the  sensibilities,  but  in 
the  fixed  purpose  to  please  and 
to  serve.  If,  along  with  this, 
the  heart  should  be  "strangely 
warmed,"  there  is  no  objection ; 
but,  after  all,  the  root  of  the  mat- 
ter must  be  found  in  the  life  of 
devotion  and  service.  "If  ye 
love  me,  keep  my  command- 
ments.*' "Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
"And  hereby  do  we  know  that 
we  know  him,  if  we  keep  his 
commandments.  He  that  saith, 
I  know  him,  and  keepeth  not  his 
commandments,  is  a  liar,  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  him."  "Ye  are 
my  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I 
command  you."     Such   passages 


94  The  Christian  Life 

as  these  show  that  the  essential 
test  of  discipleship  is  ethical  and 
volitional,  not  emotional;  and 
their  frequent  occurrence  shows  a 
purpose  to  ward  off  the  very  error 
in  question. 

A  frequent  consequence  of  this 
error  concerning  emotion  is,  that 
the  attention  of  the  inquirer  is 
diverted  from  the  central  and  es- 
sential thing,  the  surrender  of  the 
will  and  life  to  God,  and  fixed 
upon  having  an  experience.  This 
experience  is  crudely  conceived 
as  a  striking  emotional  event 
which  must  be  of  an  extraordi- 
nary character  in  order  to  meet  the 
expectation.  Thus  the  volitional 
and  ethical  element,  which  is  es- 
sential, is  subordinated  to  a  pas- 
sive and  emotional  element,  which 
in  any  case  is  only  a  non-essential 
attendant  of  religious  consecra- 
tion, and  which,  in  many  cases, 
is  purely  pathological.     That  it 


A  Study  95 

is  such  in  a  great  many  cases,  ap- 
pears from  the  fearful  dispropor- 
tion between  the  number  of  pro- 
bationers and  the  number  of  those 
received  into  full  membership. 
Who  can  believe  that  such  dis- 
proportion would  exist,  if  the  in- 
quirer had  been  rightly  instructed, 
and  had  solemnly,  intelligently, 
ethically  devoted  and  consecrated 
himself  to  do  the  will  of  God  ? 
Emotional  effervescence  may  sub- 
side in  this  way,  but  intelligent 
and  moral  self-consecration  does 
not.  There  is  so  much  confu- 
sion among  us  on  this  point  that 
the  majority  of  inquirers  are  aim- 
ing to  have  an  experience  rather 
than  to  surrender  themselves  to 
God  in  faith  and  obedience.  And 
with  this  false  aim  they  fail  to 
"get  through,"  or  to  "come  out 
into  the  light."  This  mistaken 
aim  at  an  experience  has  so  af- 
fected our  conception  of  conver- 


96  The  Christian  Life 

sion  that  intercollegiate  Christian 
workers  have  noticed  it  as  a  pe- 
culiarity of  Methodist  students 
that  they  seem  to  be  seeking  after 
some  sign,  instead  of  fixing  their 
thought  on  the  surrender  of  them- 
selves in  faith  to  the  Lord  Jesus  to 
be  his  disciples.  Often  enough  the 
sign  is  not  given  them,  and  then 
comes  the  familiar  sense  of  un- 
certainty and  artificiality  in  re- 
ligion. 

In  opposition  to  this  error,  our 
attention  should  always  be  di- 
rected to  securing  filial  submis- 
sion to  the  will  of  God.  The  in- 
quirer must  be  instructed,  if  need 
be,  in  Christian  truth.  His 
thought  must  be  made  familiar 
with  the  grace  of  God  and  the 
gracious  provisions  of  the  gospel. 
Peace  and  joy  will  naturally  arise 
in  the  penitent  soul  as  it  contem- 
plates this  grace  and  yields  itself 
to  it  in  trust  and  obedience.    But 


A  Study  97 

their  form  and  measure  will  vary 
very  greatly  with  different  persons 
according  to  education,  temper- 
ament, and  many  other  circum- 
stances. But  the  disciple  must 
not  concern  himself  about  them. 
Loving  submission  and  active 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God  in 
accordance  with  the  promises  of 
Christ  are  the  supreme  and  only 
mark  of  Christian  discipleship. 
We  are  not  called  upon  to  have  ex- 
periences, or  emotional  upheavals, 
or  witnesses  of  the  Spirit ;  but 
we  are  called  upon  to  surrender 
ourselves  in  faith  and  humility  to 
do  the  will  of  God.  Cease  to  do 
evil,  learn  to  do  well,  is  the  only 
infallible  test  of  conversion. 

The  attitude  of  the  will,  then, 
is  the  central  thing  in  the  Chris- 
tian life.  But  in  applying  this 
truth  we  must  guard  against  an 
extravagancy,  often  amounting  to 
positive  error,  which  may  arise 
7 


98  The  Christian  Life 

at  tliis  point.  We  are  often  told 
that  we  must  be  willing  to  do 
whatsoever  God  may  require,  to 
give  up  all  for  Christ,  etc. ;  and 
this  admits  of  easy  exaggeration. 
Formally,  the  statement  is  cor- 
rect ;  but  the  concrete  meaning  is 
not  always  plain.  Negatively, 
the  meaning  is  simple.  We  must 
cease  to  do  evil;  any  recognized 
iniquity,  impiety,  unrighteous- 
ness, wickedness,  must  be  put 
away  unhesitatingly,  irrevocably, 
forever.  That  one  should  call 
himself  the  child  of  God  while 
working  the  works  of  the  devil, 
is  not  to  be  thought  of  for  a  mo- 
ment. 

But  the  positive  contents  of 
the  idea  are  very  crudely  con- 
ceived. We  often  fall  a  prey  to 
mere  abstraction's  of  theory  with- 
out duly  regarding  the  realities  of 
life.  Error  here  may  take  a 
double  direction.     We   may   fall 


A  Study  99 

into  an  abstract  conception  of  re- 
nunciation, and  we  may  miscon- 
ceive the  relation  of  God's  will 
to  the  great  every-day  life  of 
work  and  social  relations.  The 
former  error  is  illustrated  by  the 
fancy  of  some  of  the  older  New 
England  theologians,  that  no  one 
could  be  saved  who  was  not  will- 
to  be  damned  for  the  glory  of 
God.  Of  course,  a  good  closet 
argument  could  be  made  for  this 
abomination.  One  might  say 
that,  so  long  as  anything  was  pre- 
ferred to  the  Divine  glory,  one  had 
not  fully  submitted  to  the  will  of 
God ;  was  keeping  back  a  part  of 
the  price  therefor,  like  Ananias; 
or,  like  Achan,  had  a  wedge  of 
gold  and  a  Babylonish  garment 
concealed  in  one's  tent.  Thor- 
ough work,  then,  could  be  made 
only  by  insisting  upon  willing- 
ness to  be  damned  for  the  Divine 
glory.      This  was  the  only  sure 


lOO  The  Christian  Life 

test  of  selfishness.  The  purely 
fictitious  and  inhuman  character 
of  this  demand  is  apparent.  The 
only  good  thing  that  ever  came 
out  of  it  is  the  reported  reply  of 
an  applicant  to  the  examining 
committee  which  pressed  the 
question,  that  he  was  willing  the 
committee  should  be  damned  if 
need  be. 

We  have  escaped  such  excesses ; 
but  a  great  deal  of  unwisdom  is 
still  current  on  this  point.  Vague 
general  remarks  abound  about 
taking  up  the  cross,  the  surrender 
of  this  and  that,  the  willingness 
to  do  a  variety  of  disagreeable 
things ;  and  these  are  often  made 
the  test  of  disci  pi eship.  Relig- 
ious exhortation  is  full  of  matter  of 
this  sort ;  and  inquirers  are  left  to 
torment  themselves  with  the  fancy 
that  anything  which  revolts  their 
taste  or  sensibility,  or  some  purely 
imaginary  thing,  as  a  willingness 


A  Study  lOI 

to  go  as  a  missionary  to  Van  Die- 
men^s  Land,  or  to  address  some 
stranger  on  the  street  concerning 
his  soul,  is  a  part  of  the  cross  which 
must  be  taken  up,  if  one  would 
enter  into  life.  They  are  also  led 
to  think  that  an  unwillingness  to 
speak  in  public  when  they  have 
nothing  to  say  is  to  be  ashamed 
of  Jesus,  or  to  do  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  an  unbecoming  and 
unedifying  volubility  is  often  en- 
couraged from  the  idea  that  thus 
the  power  of  grace  is  triumphantly 
displayed.  The  following  quota- 
tion from  a  religious  paper  of  re- 
cent publication  illustrates  the 
former  error  : 

Then  the  Lord  God  said  to  me: 
"David,  are  you  willing  to  consecrate 
yourself?"  *'  Yes,  Lord.  Everything, 
everything."  And  he  brought  one 
thing  after  another  in  this  way:  "Are 
you  willing  to  leave  your  situation  if 
I   ask   you?"      I  was    quite    willing. 


I02  The  Christian  Life 

"Would  you  go  to  Africa  to  be  eaten 
by  cannibals?"  I  was  willing  to  do 
even  that.  Then  the  I,ord  said: 
"Would  you  leave  your  wife  at  home 
and  go  anywhere?"  O,  I  wasn't  will- 
ing! It  was  very  hard  to  leave  my 
dear  wife  behind  and  go  anywhere. 
Then  a  fight  went  on  in  my  heart.  I 
didn't  want  to  yield  that;  but  the 
Lord  brought  Christ  very  prominently 
before  me,  and  he  said  that  he  must  be 
first  and  my  wife  in  the  second  place. 
Then  he  brought  before  me  the  re- 
sponsibility of  heathen  souls,  Moham- 
medans, Buddhists,  and  others.  "  Da- 
vid, are  you  willing  to  leave  all  to  win 
souls?"  Then  it  came  to  me:  "What 
am  I  to  do?  The  Lord  will  take  care 
of  my  wife ;"  and  I  said,  "  O  Lord,  I 
am  willing  to  leave  my  wife  behind 
and  go  anywhere."  Then  the  strug- 
gle ceased.  "Would  you  like  to  be- 
come as  the  dust  of  Colombo  for  my 
sake?"  Yes,  I  was  willing.  The  Lord 
searched  me  through  and  through. 

All  this  is  purely  fictitious. 
The  Lord  said  none  of  these 
things;     they     were     suggested 


A  Study  103 

solely  by  the  author's  own  mis- 
guided mind.  The  Lord  often 
calls  us  to  sacrifice  and  renuncia- 
tion, but  never  in  any  such  arti- 
ficial fashion  as  this.  The  per- 
son simply  had  in  his  mind  the 
abstract  notion  of  complete  sur- 
render to  God,  and  then  proceeded 
to  determine  the  concrete  con- 
tents of  the  duty  by  calling  up  a 
miscellaneous  collection  of  things 
to  which  he  might  be  disinclined. 
Meanwhile  reason  and  good  sense 
were  in  complete  abeyance,  be- 
cause of  the  fancy  that  all  of  these 
things  were  directly  suggested  by 
God  as  tests  of  the  person's  sin- 
cerity. The  reference  to  leaving 
his  wife  is  paralleled  only  by  the 
testimony  of  a  brother  in  class- 
meeting  who  reported  that  his 
wife  had  died,  and  that  he  had 
been  so  wonderfully  supported  by 
Divine  grace  that  he  had  not 
missed  her  at  all  or  felt  any  sorrow. 


I04  The  Christian  Life 

The  leader  had  the  grace  and  good 
sense  to  tell  him  never  to  repeat 
that  story  again,  as  it  revealed  in- 
human insensibility  rather  than 
Divine  support. 

But  with  the  uninstructed  and 
sensitive  conscience,  misconcep- 
tions of  this  sort  are  likely  to 
arise  when  one  is  testing  his  will- 
ingness to  do  the  will  of  God. 
And  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  many  good  Christians  have 
been  unwilling  to  have  their  chil- 
dren exposed  to  such  crude  and 
undiscriminating  teaching.  Of 
course  the  intellectually  and  mor- 
ally pachydermatous  are  un- 
harmed, but  with  the  sensitive 
and  uninstructed  conscience  the 
danger  is  great.  And  the  danger 
is  double.  On  the  one  hand  there 
is  danger  of  falling  into  fictitious 
sacrifices  and  mortifications ;  and, 
on  the  other,  there  is  danger  of  a 
permanent  revolt  against  religion 


A  Study  105 

when  at  last  the  fiction  is  seen 
through.  I  have  had  ample  ex- 
perience of  both  results. 

There  is  great  need  at  this  point 
for  the  wise  Christian  teacher,  in 
order  to  save  the  untaught  or  in- 
experienced from  these  dangers. 
He  must  distinguish  between  the 
positive  and  negative  aspects  of 
this  surrender  to  the  Divine  will. 
Its  negative  meaning,  we  have 
said,  is  clear ;  it  involves  the  ut- 
ter and  final  abandonment  or 
avoidance  of  all  unrighteousness 
and  iniquity.  On  the  positive 
side  we  must  emphasize  the  cen- 
tral and  primal  duties  about  which 
there  is  no  question.  We  must 
teach  the  inquirer  to  relate  his 
life,  internal  and  external,  to 
the  Divine  will,  and  especially  to 
comprehend  the  daily  round  of 
routine  life  and  of  social  relations, 
the  round  of  work  and  rest,  of 
neighborly  intercourse  and  civic 


Io6  The  Christian  Life 

duties,  within  the  Divine  thought 
and  purpose,  and  thus  within  the 
scope  of  religion.  But  we  must 
resolutely  defend  the  inquirer 
from  all  this  unwholesome  casu- 
istry concerning  crossbearing,  and 
testifying,  and  fictitious  self-cru- 
cifixions, and  imaginary  duties  and 
trumped-up  sacrifices.  Ignorant 
conscientiousness  can  settle  none 
of  these  questions.  We  must  fall 
back  on  good  sense,  that  general 
sense  of  reality  and  soundness 
without  which  the  moral  life  be- 
comes a  series  of  snares  and  loses 
itself  in  silliness  or  fanaticism. 
We  must  point  out  that  the  es- 
sence of  religion  lies  in  the  filial 
spirit,  in  the  desire  to  serve  and 
please  God;  and  then  we  must 
point  out  that  our  all-inclusive  re- 
ligious duty  is  to  offer  up  the 
daily  life,  pervaded  and  sanctified 
by  the  filial  spirit,  as  our  spirit- 
ual service  and  worship  of  God. 


A  Study  107 

But  how  shall  we  know  when 
we  have  done  enough?  This  is 
a  question  which  roots  partly  in 
the  unwholesome  casuistry  re- 
ferred to,  and  partly  in  a  desire 
to  get  off  as  cheaply  as  possible. 
In  the  latter  case  it  shows  that 
we  have  neither  part  nor  lot  in 
the  matter.  We  are  trying  to 
conceive  a  spiritual  relation  me- 
chanically, and  we  miss  the  spir- 
itual element  altogether.  By 
consequence  we  asssume  that  sal- 
vation may  be  something  exter- 
nal, and  we  desire  to  get  it  at  the 
best  bargain.  Such  notions  arise 
from  our  non-ethical  conceptions 
of  the  subject,  and  disappear  for- 
ever when  we  see  that  salvation 
must  consist  in  establishing  or  re- 
storing the  filial  spirit  in  the 
heart. 

The  question,  as  rooted  in  cas- 
uistry, overlooks  the  essential 
truth  of  the  gospel.     The  ques- 


lo8  The  Christian  Life 

tion  for  the  Christian  to  raise  is 
not  whether  he  has  done  enough, 
but  whether  he  is  seeking  to  live 
in  the  filial  spirit.  The  latter 
question  no  one  can  answer  for 
him,  and  he  needs  no  one  to  an- 
swer it  for  him.  As  to  doing 
enough,  no  one  does  enough. 
There  is  no  satisfaction  in  doing. 
We  are  at  best  unprofitable  serv- 
ants. We  can  always  wonder 
whether  we  might  not  have  done 
more,  strained  a  little  harder, 
reached  a  greater  intensity  of  ef- 
fort. This  way  madness  lies. 
On  such  a  view  one^s  salvation  is 
a  sort  of  Rupert's  drop,  and  likely 
to  fly  into  flinders  at  any  moment. 
To  all  such  questions  we  reply 
by  falling  back  on  the  gospel  it- 
self. We  are  not  members  of  the 
Divine  family  because  we  are  prof- 
itable servants,  but  because  God 
has  declared  us  to  be  his  children. 
We  stand  not  in  the  value  of  our 


A  Study  109 

services,  but  in  the  Divine  love. 
And  that  love  bears  with  our  im- 
perfect, halting  service,  and  takes 
the  will  for  the  deed.  This  is  the 
gist  and  glory  of  the  gospel.  It 
can  not  be  understood  in  forensic 
and  mechanical  terms,  but  it  is 
perfectly  intelligible  through  the 
life  of  the  family  or  the  gratitude 
of  a  penitent  heart.  No  child  has 
its  place  in  the  family  because  of 
the  value  and  merit  of  its  serv- 
ices, but  because  it  is  a  child.  It 
is  saved  by  grace,  not  by  works. 
But  being  a  child,  it  can  show 
forth  the  filial  spirit  in  word  and 
deed,  and  parental  love  does  all 
the  rest.  Membership  in  the  di- 
vine family  is  similarly  condi- 
tioned. 

We  must,  then,  declare  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  to  all  those  who 
do  truly  and  earnestly  repent  of 
their  sins  and  intend  to  lead  a  new 
life,  following  the  commandments 


no  The  Christian  Life 

of  God,  and  walking  hencefortli 
in  his  holy  ways.  And  this  we 
do  in  the  name  and  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  has 
revealed  the  Father.  And  we 
must  allow  nothing  to  interfere 
with  the  simplicity  of  this  reve- 
lation. Mechanical  conditions  of 
mechanical  works,  and  subjective 
conditions  framed  from  emotional 
states,  are  alike  and  equally  de- 
partures from  the  truth  of  the 
gospel. 

Religflous  Beg:2nnin§;s   ' 

The  religious  life  in  its  idea  is 
altogether  independent  of  the  ex- 
istence of  sin.  We  are  not,  then, 
to  think  of  it  as  a  device  for  over- 
coming sin  or  for  saving  sinners. 
This  work,  indeed,  has  to  be  done ; 
but  it  is  only  incidental  to  the 
deeper,  more  inclusive  aim  of  re- 
ligion. Religion  has  to  do  with 
the  relation  of  man  to  God,  and 


A  Sttsdy  III 

would  exist  if  there  were  no  sin 
in  the  world  or  in  the  heart.  In- 
deed, it  is  only  in  the  sinless  life 
that  the  ideal  of  religion  can  be 
perfectly  realized ;  for  only  there 
can  we  find  the  filial  spirit  per- 
fectly realized  and  perfectly  ex- 
pressed. 

In  what  we  have  now  to  say, 
some  readers  of  theological  tend- 
encies will  miss  a  good  deal  of 
traditional  matter  concerning  the 
relation  of  the  sinner  to  God's 
law,  etc. ;  but  we  have  once  more 
to  remind  them  that  this,  in  its 
best  estate,  is  matter  of  theology 
and  not  of  experience.  Whatever 
mysteries  there  may  be  in  that  di- 
rection, we  have  no  practical  con- 
cern with  them.  We  have  only 
to  accept  our  place  as  children 
in  our  Father's  house;  and  we 
must  not  confuse  this  simple  truth 
of  the  gospel  with  matter  drawn 
from  theology. 


112  The  Clmstian  Life 

If  human  development  were 
normal,  there  would  be  no  need 
of  conversion — that  is,  of  a  turn- 
ing around,  or  a  turning  to- 
ward God;  for  we  should  never 
have  turned  away  from  him.  We 
should  simply  pass  from  the  un- 
consciousness and  passivity  of 
dawning  life  to  the  distinct  con- 
sciousness and  volitional  attitude 
of  mature  life.  And  this  transi- 
tion would  be  made  slowly,  and 
without  break  or  jar,  something 
as  the  dawn  comes  up.  As  in  the 
family  life  no  one  can  tell,  in  the 
child's  unfolding,  when  love  and 
obedience  begin,  so  in  the  normal 
development  of  the  religious  life, 
no  one  could  tell  when  it  begins. 
The  inner  life  has  none  of  the 
sharp  divisions  of  our  speech ;  and 
consciousness  fades  away  from 
clear  apprehension  and  distinct 
volition  into  incipiencies,  and  un- 
certain  dawnings,   and    shadowy 


A  Study  113 

beginnings,  where  directions  may 
possibly  be  discerned,  but  no  fixed 
lines  can  be  drawn.  In  such  nor- 
mal unfolding  there  might  be  great 
individual  differences  of  experi- 
ence, owing  to  differences  of  tem- 
perament and  mental  habit.  With 
the  more  reflective  the  recognition 
and  acceptance  of  the  Divine  will 
might  be  a  matter  of  more  definite 
date,  but  they  would  be  no  more 
real  on  that  account  than  they 
would  be  in  a  life  of  less  sharply- 
marked  transitions.  And  with  such 
reflective  person  such  a  date  might 
well  be  a  time  forever  to  be  re- 
membered unto  the  Lord ;  but  it 
would  not  mark  a  conversion,  but 
only  a  conscious  affirmation  and 
ratification  of  what  had  already 
been  unconsciously  done. 

In  actual   life  the  nearest   ap- 
proximation to  such   normal  re- 
ligious development   is  found  in 
the  Christian  family.     Here,  too, 
8 


114  '^^*  Christian  Life 

the  aim  should  be,  not  conver- 
sion, but  to  bring  the  children  up 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord;  and  the  necessity  of 
conversion,  or  a  turning  from  sin 
to  God  and  righteousness,  hints 
strongly  at  parental  failure  either 
to  grasp  the  truth  of  the  gospel 
or  to  realize  it  in  the  family  life. 
The  ideal  form  of  the  Christian 
life  is  that  which  never  experi- 
enced conversion,  and  which  can 
not  date  its  beginning.  And  if 
one  says.  But  there  must  be  a 
time  of  distinct  choice  between 
God  and  the  world,  etc.,  the  an- 
swer would  be  that  at  best  this 
only  fixes  the  beginning  of  self- 
consciousness  in  religion  and  not 
the  beginning  of  religion  itself. 
And  indeed  self-consciousness  can 
rarely  be  thus  accurately  dated; 
but  religion  in  the  properly-trained 
Christian  child  has  complex  and 
untraceable    beginnings    in    the 


A  Study  115 


Spirit  and  atmosphere  of  the  home, 
in  childhood's  prayers,  in  participa- 
tion in  religious  rites  and  customs, 
in  imitation  of  those  about  him, 
in  wise  parental  instruction  and 
discipline,  and  in  the  hidden  in- 
fluence of  the  Holy  Spirit.  These 
things  can  not  be  dated.  The 
date  of  self-consciousness  in  choice 
and  consecration  might  conceiva- 
ably  be  fixed  in  the  case  of  the 
Christian  child  ;  but  even  this  is 
rarely  possible  and  it  is  unimpor- 
tant in  any  case.  When  does  filial 
affection  begin  in  the  growing 
child,  or  patriotism  in  the  devel- 
oping youth  ?  The  important 
thing  is  not  to  know  when  the 
day  begins,  but  to  have  the  day 
actually  here. 

Divine  grace  and  help  are  al- 
ways needed  and  by  all  alike ;  but 
conversion  as  an  event  in  conscious 
experience  is  needed  only  for  those 
who,   from  evil   training  or  from 


Il6  The  Christian  Life 

willful  transgression,  have  turned 
away  from  God.  All  such  per- 
sons must  convert  themselves; 
that  is,  must  turn  around  and  turn 
towards  God  and  righteousness. 
But  in  all  cases  the  thing  aimed 
at  is  the  same— the  establishment 
of  the  filial  spirit  as  the  ruling 
principle  of  life  and  action. 
Where  the  filial  spirit  is  con- 
sciously present  we  have  the  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom.  Where  it 
is  consciously  absent  we  have  the 
children  of  disobedience.  Where 
there  is  no  consciousness  as  yet 
of  the  higher  goods  and  relations 
of  life  we  have  simply  the  sub- 
religious  state  in  which  so  many 
human  beings  exist,  and  out  of 
which  they  are  to  develop  through 
the  multiform  discipline  and  ex- 
perience of  life.  Meanwhile  they 
are  the  objects  of  the  Divine 
grace  and  are  comprised  in  an 
order  divinely  appointed  for  their 


A  Study  117 

development  and  unfolding  into 
deeper  and  higher  life.  Hard  and 
fast  divisions  and  classifications 
are  impossible  in  such  an  order; 
and  forensic  distinctions  are  as 
grotesquely  impossible  as  they 
would  be  in  the  life  of  the  fam- 
ily. Meanwhile  it  is  the  task  of 
the  Christian  teacher  and  of  the 
mature  disciple  to  co-operate  with 
the  Divine  love  by  setting  forth 
and  revealing  the  higher  life  by 
precept  and  example  both  person- 
ally and  through  the  organized 
institutions  of  the  Christian 
family  and  the  Church. 

And  in  doing  this  work  it  is 
important  to  remember  that  the 
religious  life,  except  in  its  central 
factor  of  the  filial  and  obedient 
spirit,  is  no  simple  and  single 
thing  which  is  present  always  and 
all  at  once  and  to  all  alike.  On 
the  contrary,  the  contents  of  re- 
ligious experience  vary  with  the 


Il8  The  Christian  Life 

disciple's  age,  temperament,  men- 
tal type  and  nature  of  his  previ- 
ous life.  The  Christian  life  is 
one  in  principle,  but  in  form  and 
contents  it  is  as  varied  as  human- 
ity itself. 

This  truth  has  not  been  duly 
regarded  by  the  Churches  which 
emphasize  conversion  and  per- 
sonal experience.  The  tendency 
has  been  to  construct  a  pattern 
to  which  all  should  conform ;  and 
this  pattern  has  largely  been  built 
out  of  subjective  emotional  states 
and  various  marks  of  grace  which 
only,  it  was  thought,  clearly  dis- 
tinguish the  work  of  the  Spirit 
from  spurious  imitations.  This 
was  generally  harmless  when 
we  were  dealing  with  hardened 
sinners,  but  it  became  mischie- 
vous when  applied  to  the  religion 
of  childhood,  and  to  the  religious 
life  that  should  develop  under  the 
influence  of  a  Christian  home  and 


A  Study  119 

in  a  Christian  community.  Ow- 
ing to  the  confusion  of  theology 
with  experience,  or  to  the  undue 
estimate  of  emotional  factors,  the 
popular  ideal  of  the  religious  life 
in  our  individualistic  Churches 
has  little  application  to  the  larger 
part  of  the  community. 

Types  of  Religious  Experience 
In  order  to  escape  the  confu- 
sion and  inadequacy  of  traditional 
thought  on  this  general  subject, 
we  must  observe  that  the  relig- 
ious life  is  manifold  in  content 
and  manifestation  according  to 
the  age,  the  mental  type,  and 
one's  experience  of  life. 

Apart  from  the  variations  de- 
pendent upon  age,  temperament, 
and  the  vicissitudes  of  the  indi- 
vidual lot,  there  are  distinct  types 
of  religious  thought  and  feeling, 
all  of  which  are  equally  founded 
in  human  nature,  and  no  one  of 


I20  The  Christian  Life 

which  may  set  itself  up  as  the 
norm  or  ideal  by  which  the  others 
may  be  tested. 

The  first  type  is  the  ethical. 
Religion  consists  in  righteousness  ; 
but  it  is  more  than  abstract  ethics, 
because  the  moral  law,  from  being 
an  impersonal  principle,  is  elevated 
into  the  expression  of  a  supreme 
and  holy  will.  The  regard  for  im- 
personal abstractions  is  replaced  by 
enthusiasm  for  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Christianity  summons  us 
to  be  members  of  this  kingdom 
and  co-workers  with  God  in  its  es- 
tablishment. Under  the  lead  of 
the  Captain  of  our  salvation,  and 
relying  on  his  word  and  promises, 
we  become  conscious  subjects  of 
the  kingdom.  In  quiet  times,  and 
with  persons  of  wholesome  train- 
ing and  habits,  or  with  persons  of 
unemotional  type,  and  especially 
with  children,  this  is  the  prevail- 
ing type  of  Christian  experience. 


A  Study  121 

It  is  not  markedly  emotional.  It 
is  not  given  to  fervors,  whether 
of  joy  or  remorse.  It  has  no  deep 
distress  over  the  depravity  of  our 
nature,  and  no  flaming  raptures 
over  our  deliverance.  But  it  is 
founded  in  conscience;  and  a 
very  large  part  of  the  work  of  the 
Church  is  done  by  the  Christians 
of  this  type.  This  is  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  Synoptic  Gospels, 
and  of  the  epistles  of  James  and 
Peter. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  type. 
It  is  fundamental  indeed ;  and  any 
type  which  does  not  include  it  is 
false.  But  it  does  not  include  the 
whole  of  Christian  experience. 
There  are  souls  which  can  be  sat- 
isfied with  their  obedience  to 
God's  law.  They  hear  the  com- 
mandment, and  they  obey ;  and  the 
joy  of  a  good  conscience  is  theirs. 
But  there  are  other  souls  which 
can  never  find  peace  in  this  way. 


122  Tfae  ChHstian  life 

For  them  the  commandment  is 
exceedingly  broado  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  detached  duties,  but 
takes  account  of  the  heart.  They 
hold  their  lives  up  against  the 
keen,  still  splendor  of  the  Divine 
perfection,  and  they  are  over- 
whelmed by  the  revelation.  For 
such  persons  there  is  no  peace  in 
doing.  The  more  they  do  the 
worse  they  feel.  For  the  ideal 
grows  with  obedience  and  thus 
condemns  them  more  and  more. 
For  this  state  of  mind  there  is 
only  one  prescription.  They 
must  be  taken  out  of  themselves 
and  away  from  the  contemplation 
of  their  own  efforts,  and  must  be 
taught  that  we  are  saved  by  grace, 
not  works.  Then  their  distress  is 
removed  by  the  vision  of  that  con- 
descending grace  from  above 
which  saves  us  through  itself. 
This  is  the  Pauline  type  of  Chris- 
tian experience.     It  is  not  more 


A  Study  123 


truly  Christian  than  the  purely 
ethical  type,  but  it  is  different.  It 
is  more  intense,  and  touches  the 
moral  life  at  deeper  depths.  With 
persons  of  a  mechanical  type  it 
may  pass  over  into  Antinomian- 
ism,  and  thus,  in  revolting  from 
bondage  to  rules,  become  the  ex- 
treme of  immorality.  But  when 
rightly  understood,  when  inter- 
preted vitally  and  ethically,  it  in- 
cludes the  obedience  of  the  eth- 
ical type,  but  transcends  it  by  a 
higher  moral  ideal  and  insight. 

Another  type  of  Christian  ex- 
perience arises  from  the  desire  for 
direct  personal  communion  with 
God.  If  God  indeed  dwell  within 
us,  there  must  be  some  other  way 
of  reaching  him  than  by  hearsay, 
whether  of  the  Bible  or  of  the- 
ology, or  of  the  Church.  And 
if  we  are  his  children,  there  must 
be  some  way  of  direct  commun- 
ion with  our  Father.     Besides, 


124  The  Christian  Life 

the  life  of  work  is  only  part  of  ex- 
perience. There  is  also  the  life  of 
contemplation,  of  secret  aspira- 
tion, of  adoration  and  worship. 
And  this  certainly  can  not  all  be 
on  one  side,  as  if  we  prayed  into 
the  empty  air  with  no  answer 
but  the  echo  of  our  own  voices. 
Here  the  mystical  element  of  re- 
ligion reveals  itself.  And  this, 
too,  is  a  real  aspect  of  the  relig- 
ious life ;  not  equally  recognized 
by  all,  and  scarcely  realized  at  all 
by  many,  but  important  neverthe- 
less. It  is  represented  by  the 
writings  of  St.  John  in  the  New 
Testament,  by  the  various  bodies 
of  mystics  in  Church  history,  and 
by  multitudes  of  individual  saints. 
As  said,  it  belongs  to  the  contem- 
plative rather  than  the  active  side 
of  religion;  but  it  is  important, 
even  for  practice,  by  furnishing 
the  living  water,  without  which 
life  loses  its  deepest  spring. 


A  Study  125 

The  perfect  Christian  life  would 
involve  all  of  these  forms  of  ex- 
perience; but  in  our  one-sided 
life,  one  form  or  another  predom- 
inates, and  then  we  have  to  be  on 
our  guard  against  the  shortcom- 
ings of  that  form.  For  each  form 
has  tendencies  to  error  which  will 
surely  develop  unless  proper  pre- 
caution be  taken.  The  ethical 
form  by  itself  may  easily  issue  in 
Pharisaism  and  spiritual  pride. 
When  the  spiritual  nature  is  not 
deep,  duty  is  exhausted  in  com- 
mandments ;  and  if  anything  more 
be  suspected,  it  is  simply  another 
commandment.  The  young  man 
who  had  kept  the  law  from  his 
youth  up,  or  the  Pharisee  who 
recited  his  good  deeds  in  his 
prayers,  furnishes  a  fair  specimen 
of  the  tendency  and  the  danger. 
And  this  can  be  averted  only  by 
enlarging  the  moral  insight,  and 
replacing  a  code  of  isolated  good 


126  The  Christian  Life 

works  by  the  law  of  perfect  purity 
and  perfect  love.  This  only  can 
cause  the  self-satisfied  Pharisee  to 
exchange  his  vainglorious  prayers 
for  the  cry  of  the  publican,  "God 
be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner !"  The 
ethical  type,  also,  from  its  pre- 
eminent attention  to  conduct  and 
action,  tends  to  become  dry  and 
thin,  and  to  lose  itself  in  inef- 
fectual bustle,  while  the  spiritual 
life  withers.  This,  too,  can  be 
avoided,  only  by  the  deepening 
and  enriching  influences  of  prayer 
and  meditation,  and  of  spiritual 
communion  with  the  Father  of 
our  spirits.  Thus  the  ethical  type 
of  religious  life  always  needs  to 
be  combined  with  the  other  types 
in  order  to  save  it  from  its  own 
shortcomings. 

But  they  equally  need  to  be 
combined  with  the  ethical  type  to 
save  them  from  their  own  short- 
comings.    When  one  has  sought 


A  Study  127 

in  vain  for  peace  through  me- 
chanical good  works  or  strenuous 
conscientiousness,  there  is  no  more 
glorious  truth  than  this,  that  we 
are  saved  by  grace  through  faith ; 
but  this  becomes  a  pernicious  and 
immoral  doctrine  unless  it  be  eth- 
ically apprehended  and  applied. 
How  often  this  danger  has  been 
realized  is  familiar  to  every  stu- 
dent of  Church  history.  The 
contemplative  life  also  easily  loses 
itseh  in  quietistic  indifference  to 
the  work  of  the  world,  or  in  a 
barren  cultivation  of  emotions, 
in  which  all  moral  quality  and 
moral  strenuousness  disappear  al- 
together. Now,  while  the  ethical 
view  needs  to  be  deepened  by  the 
others,  they,  in  turn,  need  the  eth- 
ical view  to  give  them  fiber  and 
substance,  and  to  furnish  the  act- 
ive nature  of  man  a  worthy  task. 
And  this  can  be  found  only  in  re- 
calling the  mind  from  painful  in- 


128  The  Christian  Life 

spection  of  its  own  states,  and 
from  quietistic  dreaming  and  con- 
templation, and  setting  it  upon 
the  positive  task  of  realizing  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world. 
The  ethical  view  is  fundamental 
and  central ;  and  however  far  we 
may  go  in  religious  fervor  and  as- 
piration, we  must  never  lose  sight 
of  the  ethical  aim.  All  truly  re- 
ligious growth  and  insight  must 
be  based  on  this.  And  one  of  the 
promising  features  of  the  present 
religious  outlook  is  the  tendency 
to  pay  less  attention  to  subjective 
states,  and  more  to  the  objective 
aim  of  building  up  the  kingdom 
of  God,  which  is  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  good  will. 

These  various  types  of  religious 
experience  appear  among  the  apos- 
tles themselves.  Jesus  is  the  only 
man  who  has  perfectly  united 
them,  and  perfectly  realized  the 
perfect  life.     The  types  reappear 


A  Study  129 

in  Church  history  ;  and  it  would 
not  be  difficult  to  group  existing 
religious  bodies  by  this  standard. 
And  when  to  these  fundamental 
differences  we  add  those  arising 
from  difference  of  temperament, 
circumstances,  experience  of  life, 
we  see  how  impossible  it  is  to 
fashion  individual  experience  ac- 
cording to  a  single  pattern.  The 
attempt  to  do  so  implies  a  species 
of  religious  prox-incialism  which 
is  in  sad  need  of  enlightenment 
These  facts  must  be  borne  in 
mind  by  the  Christian  teacher ; 
and  he  must  carefully  refrain 
from  applying  any  other  test  of 
religion  than  the  filial  spirit,  or 
the  desire  and  purpose  to  serve 
and  please  God  by  keeping  his 
commandments.  The  grace  of 
God  does  all  the  rest.  And  on 
this  most  holy  faith  of  the  gos- 
pel we  are  to  build  ourselves  up 
into  all  obedience  and  spiritual 
9 


130  The  Christian  Life 

growth  through  the  assisting 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  this 
way  the  Christian  life  will  unfold 
naturally  and  in  accordance  with 
the  experience  and  peculiar  type 
of  the  individual.  Nothing  being 
demanded  but  the  filial  spirit, 
that  spirit  can  manifest  itself  in  va- 
rious ways  arid  be  the  same  spirit 
in  them  all.  Thus  we  secure 
in  the  Christian  life  something 
of  the  artistic  effect  of  free  spon- 
taneity and  of  varied  individual- 
ity instead  of  a  mechanical  monot- 
ony. By  fixing  our  thought  on 
the  filial  spirit,  we  shall  run  little 
risk  of  confusing  ourselves  with 
theological  and  metaphysical  sub- 
tleties on  the  one  hand,  or  with 
artificial  and  impossible  experi- 
ences on  the  other.  Christian 
truth  is  manifold  and  meets  the 
needs  of  all ;  but  every  phase  of  this 
truth  does  not  appeal  equally  to  all, 
nor  even  to  the  same  at  all  times. 


A  Study  131 

Religfion  of  Childhood 

The  teaching  and  practice  of 
the  individualistic  Churches  con- 
cerning the  religion  of  childhood 
have  generally  oscillated  between 
two  extremes  of  error ;  either 
children  have  been  viewed  as  in- 
capable of  religion,  or  forms  of 
experience  have  been  demanded 
from  them  which  are  possible  only 
to  mature  life,  and  often  only  to 
abandoned  sinners.  In  this  mat- 
ter our  Methodist  practice  has 
been  far  worse  than  our  theor}\ 
Theoretically  we  have  held  the 
right  view  of  Christian  childhood 
and  its  relation  to  the  Church. 
We  regard  all  children  who  have 
been  baptized  as  placed  in  visible 
covenant  relation  to  God,  and  un- 
der the  special  care  and  super- 
vision of  the  Church.  The  pastor 
is  required  to  organize  the  bap- 
tized children,  not  excluding  the 


132  The  Christian  Life 

unbaptized,  into  classes  for  relig- 
ious instruction ;  and  whenever 
the  baptized  children  shall  under- 
stand the  obligations  of  religion 
and  give  evidence  of  piety,  they 
may  be  admitted  into  full  mem- 
bership in  the  Church.  But  prac- 
tically these  wise  provisions, 
though  in  the  direct  line  of  our 
theology,  have  been  generally  ig- 
nored. We  have  "leaned  too 
much  to  Calvinism  "  in  practice ; 
and  a  particular  conception  of 
conversion  has  further  confused 
matters  by  demanding  from  the 
children  experiences  which  belong 
only  to  mature  life.  Here  is  one 
root  of  our  relative  ill-success  in 
this  field,  and  of  our  frequent  fail- 
ure to  hold  our  more  thoughtful 
families  beyond  one  or  two  gen- 
erations. And  this  ill-success  and 
failure  will  continue  and  increase 
until  we*  put  our  own  doctrines 
on  this  subject  into  rational  prac- 


A  Study  133 

tice.  We  iinist  no  longer  allow  a 
mechanical  devotion  to  inherited 
and  often  mechanical  methods  to 
drive  us  into  the  gross  pedagog- 
ical and  psychological  error  of  ex- 
pecting from  childhood  the  relig- 
ious manifestations  of  maturity. 

All  the  Churches  which  em- 
phasize personal  religion  have 
been  more  or  less  guilty  of  this 
fault;  and  they  need  to  bring 
forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance. 
There  is  a  large  body  of  feelings, 
much  affected  by  the  artificially 
spiritual,  which  are  not  religious 
at  all,  but  are  simply  expressions 
of  advancing  age.  Such  are  the 
sense  of  the  brevity  of  life  and  of 
the  unsatisfying  nature  of  all 
earthly  things.  Feelings  of  this 
sort  are  unnatural  to  the  young  ; 
and  language  of  this  sort  from 
them  can  only  be  an  echo,  or  an 
expression  of  artificial  sentiment. 
There  are  many  other  feelings  of 


134  The  Christian  Life 

a  religious  nature  which  are  also 
impossible  to  the  young.  Such 
are  a  deep  sense  of  sinfulness,  of 
human  weakness,  of  the  deprav- 
ity of  human  nature,  of  the  im- 
perfection of  our  righteousness, 
and  of  the  constant  need  of  Divine 
grace  and  forbearance  and  forgive- 
ness. Such  insight  is  impossible 
to  childhood,  for  it  is  bom  only 
of  the  deeper  experiences  of  ma- 
ture life  and  of  the  sterner  con- 
flicts of  faith.  Yet  we  have  not 
scrupled  to  gather  up  these  feel- 
ings and  con\'ictions  as  pre-emi- 
nently marks  of  grace,  and  to 
look  for  them  in  the  life  of  child- 
hood. And  sometimes  the  child 
repeats  the  phrases,  to  our  great 
delight  and  edification.  Or  we 
see  that  the  meaning  is  really  be- 
yond the  child,  and  then  we  con- 
clude that  children  are  incapable 
of  religion. 

Both  of  these  errors  are  to  be 


A  Study  135 

avoided.  The  religion  of  matu- 
rity is  impossible  to  childhood, 
but  the  religion  of  childhood  is 
religion  nevertheless.  It  is  largely 
of  the  simple  ethical  type,  not 
without  its  naive  misconceptions 
and  innocent  misunderstandings; 
but  it  may  be  very  loyal  for  all 
that.  We  often  misjudge  the  re- 
ligion of  childhood  by  misinter- 
preting the  transparency  of  child- 
hood. When  we  find  petulance, 
inconstancy,  inconsistency,  indif- 
ference in  children,  we  conclude 
that  there  is  no  religious  princi- 
ple. But  the  poorer  show  that 
childhood  makes  in  these  re- 
spects in  comparison  with  the 
more  mature  is  commonly  due  to 
its  transparent  simplicity.  It  has 
not  learned  self-control  and  dissim- 
ulation. It  finds  the  Sabbath 
irksome,  and  says  so.  It  finds  the 
religious  exercise  distasteful,  and 
the   fact  is  revealed.     The  man 


136  The  Christian  Life 

has  the  same  experience,  but  keeps 
it  to  himself.  His  thoughts  may 
be  all  abroad  during  the  prayer 
or  the  sermon,  but  nobody  knows 
it.  Due  consideration  of  this  fact 
would  lead  to  a  juster  estimate  of 
the  religion  of  childhood. 

Christian  truth,  we  have  already 
said,  is  manifold,  and  meets  the 
needs  of  all ;  but  the  needs  vary 
with  age,  experience,  tempera- 
ment, mental  type,  etc.,  and  the 
religious  life  will  vary  to  corre- 
spond. This  must  be  borne  in 
mind  in  dealing  with  the  religion 
of  the  young.  It  is  one  of  God's 
great  mercies  that  those  who  have 
the  earthly  life  before  them  are 
generally  pleased  with  it.  Hence, 
to  the  young,  it  is  a  glad  thing  to 
live,  and  we  ought  not  to  wish  it 
otherwise.  Without  this  naive 
optimism  of  youth,  life  would 
hardly  be  possible ;  and  nothing 
could  well  be  more  false  to  Chris-  ■ 


A  Study  137 

tian  truth  and  the  Christian  spirit 
than  interference  therewith  in  the 
supposed  interests  of  piety.  We 
must  not,  then,  call  upon  the 
young  to  have  mournful  and  de- 
spondent feelings  about  the  life 
that  now  is,  and  a  desire  to  depart 
and  be  with  Christ,  in  the  fancy 
that  thereby  they  become  more 
truly  religious.  We  must  rather 
remind  them  that  this  earth  also 
is  one  of  the  many  mansions  in 
the  Father's  house,  and  seek  to 
help  them  to  relate  this  life  to 
God's  will.  The  child's  optimism 
is  really  nearer  the  truth  than  tbe 
old  man's  pessimism ;  for  it  is 
God's  world  after  all,  and  it  is 
right  that  we  should  rejoice  in  it 
and  be  glad;  and  instead  of  re- 
buking the  children  for  their  sim- 
ple joy  in  life,  we  should  rather 
rebuke  the  pessimism  of  maturity 
as  rooting  in  a  lack  of  faith. 
Let,    then,    the    children    take 


138  The  Christian  Life 

their  vows  with  a  glad  heart ;  and 
when  life  wears  on,  and  experi- 
ence deepens,  and  the  overturn- 
ings  come,  they  will  learn  of  them- 
selves that  this  earth  is  not  our 
rest,  and  will  appreciate  the  life 
and  immortality  brought  to  light 
in  the  gospel.  They  will  also 
learn  the  blessedness  of  the  cor- 
responding fact  that  we  are  saved 
by  grace.  Any  true  appreciation 
of  these  things  comes  only  through 
life.  The  formulas  may  be  learned 
from  a  catechism,  but  their  mean- 
ing comes  from  experience ;  and, 
coming  in  this  way,  it  is  unforced 
and  natural.  It  is  not  a  sign  of 
grace,  which  is  anxiously  to  be 
sought  for  in  all  Christians,  but 
an  insight  which  is  developed  only 
in  the  maturer  Christian  life.  And 
the  lacking  insight,  or  the  lesser 
measure  of  insight,  points  only  to 
a  less  advanced  religious  develop- 
ment, and  not  to  being  an  alien 


A  Study  139 

or  stranger  in  the  household  of 
faith. 

And  now  we  must  have  a  final 
word  with  the  traditionalist,  who 
confuses  theology  with  experience. 
He  will  certainly  miss,  in  the  pre- 
vious exposition,  a  deal  to  which 
he  has  been  accustomed.  He  is 
not  content  to  find  in  conversion 
simply  a  turning  to  God  in  trust 
and  obedience  according  to  the 
commands  and  promises  of  Christ, 
but  discerns  in  it  mysterious  fo- 
rensic relations  to  the  Divine  jus- 
tice, and  also  deep  metaphysical 
changes  in  the  soul  itself.  The 
former  element  is  necessary  in 
order  to  meet  the  supposed  de- 
mands of  justice;  and  the  latter 
element  is  peculiarly  necessary  for 
distinguishing  the  work  of  grace 
from  mere  natural  goodness.  Such 
goodness,  not  being  of  faith,  is  of 
course  of  sin ;  and  there  is  needed 


140  The  Christian  Life 

some  sure  standard  whereby  these 
counterfeits  of  grace  may  be  de- 
tected. Such  a  standard  is  at  least 
formally  furnished  b)^  the  view  in 
question.  Judged  by  character 
and  conduct,  it  is  not  easy  to  mark 
off  men  into  two  sharply  distinct 
classes;  but  if  we  may  suppose 
some  hidden  forensic  or  metaphys- 
ical change  or  event,  then  the 
distinction  is  easy.  The  converted 
are  those  in  whom  this  change 
has  taken  place.  All  others  are 
unconverted,  and  their  righteous- 
ness, however  fair  in  seeming,  is 
filthy  rags.  But  as  thus  conceived, 
the  operation  is  as  mechanical  as 
baptismal  regeneration  itself.  It 
is  taken  entirely  out  of  the  intel- 
ligible ethical  realm,  and  is  with 
difficulty  saved  from  vanishing 
into  abstract  hocus-pocus. 

We  escape  this  confusion  by 
again  reminding  ourselves  that 
salvation  on  the  human  side  must 


A  Study  141 

essentially  consist  in  the  produc- 
tion of  the  filial  spirit,  and  that 
forensic  difficulties,  if  not  fictions 
of  abstract  theology,  are  something 
with  which  we  have  no  practical 
concern.  Whatever  hidden  diffi- 
culties in  the  Divine  nature  or 
government  there  may  be  respect- 
ing the  forgiveness  of  sins,  our 
Methodist  faith  is  that  they  have 
all  been  met,  so  that  our  sole 
duty  is  to  proclaim  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  to  call  the  prodigals 
home  to  the  Father's  house,  and 
to  bring  up  the  children  to  be  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord 
Almighty.  All  beyond  this  is 
theology,  and  is  of  no  practical 
moment.  The  great  danger  to 
which  men  are  exposed  consists 
in  unlikeness  to  God  in  sympathy 
and  purpose.  If  this  unlikeness 
can  be  removed,  everything  else 
will  take  care  of  itself.  Remem- 
bering the  form  of  human  devel- 


142  The  Christian-  Life 

opment  and  the  universality  of 
the  provisions  of  the  gospel,  we 
must  say  that  every  one  is  in  the 
Divine  family  who  does  not  insist 
on  taking  himself  out.  And  our 
effort  must  be  directed  to  bring- 
ing men  to  recognize  their  duties, 
relations,  and  privileges  as  mem- 
bers of  the  family. 

But  the  person  who  thinks  me- 
chanically will  continue  to  ask, 
Who,  then,  are  the  saved?  This 
question  is  best  answered  by  ask- 
ing another.  Who  are  the  un- 
saved ?  To  this  we  can  give  an  an- 
swer. The  unsaved  are  all  those 
who  are  living  in  unrighteousness 
and  unfilial  rejection  of  the  law 
and  grace  of  God.  These  are  the 
prodigal  sons  who  must  return  to 
their  Father  or  reap  the  fruit  of 
their  doings.  All  others  are  saved 
in  this  sense,  that  they  are  compre- 
hended in  an  order  of  Divine 
grace  which   is  working  toward 


A  Study  143 

their  development  into  the  con- 
sciousness and  acceptance  of  their 
place  in  God's  family.  But  the 
development  is  nowhere  complete. 
It  stretches  all  the  way  from  the 
unconsciousness  of  childhood  to 
the  still  imperfect  apprehension 
and  devotion  of  the  mature  saint. 
But  all  alike  stand  in  the  Divine 
grace;  and  the  Divine  love  is 
bearing  them  on.  And  our  task 
consists  in  co-working  with  this 
love,  that  the  will  of  God  may  be 
seen  and  done  by  us,  and  on  the 
earth,  as  it  is  seen  and  done  in 
heaven.  Beyond  this,  judgment 
is  not  ours.  Our  sole  hope  is  in 
the  mercy  and  goodness  of  God. 

Conclusfon 

It  is  no  quick  and  easy  pro- 
cess, this  building  of  men  into 
the  realization  of  their  Divine 
sonship.       The    theory    may   be 


144  The  Christian  Life 

simple  but  the  practice  is  diffi- 
cult. We  can  all  see  what  is  to 
be  done;  but  how  to  do  it,  de- 
mands all  our  wisdom  and  all 
our  patience.  The  work  pro- 
ceeds slowly  within  ourselves; 
and  this  should  moderate  our  im- 
patience at  its  slowness  in  others. 
God  has  patience  with  us,  and 
we  in  our  measure  must  have  pa- 
tience also.  I  am  far  from  think- 
ing, then,  that  any  short  cuts 
have  been  revealed  as  the  result 
of  our  study.  My  only  thought 
has  been  to  reach  a  clearer  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  aim  and 
method  in  human  life  which  will 
save  us  from  misdirected  effort 
and  misleading  expectations  in  our 
attempts  to  realize  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Several  points  may  be 
mentioned  as  significant  for  the 
better  prosecution  of  our  work. 
I.  Personal  religion  is  the  ideal 
of  religious  development,  and  the 


A  Study  145 

development  may  never  be  viewed 
as  complete  until  this  ideal  has 
been  reached.  No  rites  or  for- 
mulas or  institutions  or  officials 
can  take  its  place ;  and  they  must 
never  be  allowed  to  thrust  them- 
selves between  the  soul  and  God 
as  necessary  media  of  the  Divine 
favor  or  manifestation.  The  only 
value  we  can  attribute  to  them  is 
of  an  instrumental,  pedagogical, 
and  temporary  character.  On  this 
point  we  can  not  be  too  peremp- 
tory. It  marks  the  difference 
between  a  mechanical  and  a  spir- 
itual religion. 

2.  In  realizing  this  ideal  we 
must  carefully  distinguish  the 
language  of  theology  from  that 
of  experience.  Without  this  dis- 
tinction the  untrained  disciple  is 
inevitably  confused,  and  seeks,  as 
we  have  said,  to  experience  the- 
ology rather  than  religion. 

3.  We  must  remember  the  im- 


146  Tfce  Chriiitian  Life 

perfection  of  language  itself  as  an 
instrument  for  expressing  the  in- 
ner life.  We  must  guard  against  its 
over-definiteness,  and  also  against 
mistaking  its  metaphors  for  facts. 
This  can  be  done  only  by  using 
language  critically,  by  passing 
behind  the  word  to  the  fact  and 
by  inquiring  whether  the  language 
describes  an  experience  or  sets 
forth  an  ideal.  Much  language 
is  of  the  latter  sort,  as  often  in 
prayer;  it  represents  nothing  we 
have  ever  experienced,  but  rather 
an  ideal  aspiration.  The  religious 
teacher  must  exercise  great  care 
at  this  point  to  save  inexperi- 
enced hearers  from  dangerous  ver- 
bal snares. 

4.  We  must  distinguish  be- 
tween the  theological  theory 
which  may  be  necessary  for  a 
philosophy  of  Christianity  and 
the  simple  truth  of  God's  grace 
and  gracious  condescension  which 


A  Study  147 

is  the  practical  gist  of  the  gospel. 
Along  with  this  we  must  see  that 
the  production  of  the  filial  spirit 
in  men  is  the  essential  practical 
meaning  of  salvation.  If  we  can 
secure  this,  we  may  be  sure  that 
all  else  will  be  provided  for. 

5.  We  must  put  supreme  empha- 
sis on  the  ethical  and  volitional  ele- 
ment in  conversion,  and  make  it 
forever  impossible  for  our  hear- 
ers to  mistake  anything  for  re- 
ligion which  does  not  include  as 
its  essential  factor  absolute  loy- 
alty to  the  will  of  God.  This 
does  not  imply  that  emotion  is  to 
be  rejected,  or  that  it  is  not  good ; 
but  only  that  it  is  always  to 
spring  from  Christian  ideas,  and 
is  to  be  subordinated  to  moral 
ends.  Only  thus  can  it  be  kept 
sane  and  pure ;  and  only  thus  can 
the  popular  revival  service  be 
saved  from  degenerating  into 
pathological  excesses,  scandalous 


148  The  Chfistian  Life 

alike  to  good  taste,  to  good  sense, 
and  to  good  morals.  But  when 
emotion  springs  from  Christian 
truth,  and  is  subordinated  to 
moral  ends,  we  can  not  have  too 
much  of  it. 

6.  We  must  remember  that  re- 
ligious experience  is  no  simple  and 
single  thing  alike  in  all,  but  is  as 
complex  and  multiform  as  life 
itself.  We  must,  then,  beware  of 
forming  a  single  standard  or  pat- 
tern of  thought  and  feeling  to 
which  all  should  conform,  beyond 
the  one  central  factor  of  submis- 
sion to  the  will  of  God.  A  recog- 
nition and  artistic  development  of 
individuality  are  needed  in  this 
field. 

7.  We  must  deal  more  ration- 
ally with  the  religion  of  child- 
hood, neither  allowing  the  chil- 
dren to  run  wild,  nor  expecting  of 
them  the  religious  manifestations 
of  maturity.     For  this  work  wise 


A  Study  149 


pastoral  oversight  will  be  needed, 
and  also,  and  more  especially,  a 
wise  and  sympathetic  home  re- 
ligion. 

8.  More  attention  should  be 
given  to  Christian  training  and 
edification.  Whatever  may  be 
the  case  with  other  Churches,  the 
Methodist  Church,  as  a  body,  needs 
to  give  more  attention  to  the  edifi- 
cation of  the  saints  and  to  the 
building  of  character.  Conver- 
sion, in  any  sense,  is  only  intro- 
ductory— the  crude  beginning, 
and  not  the  end. 

9.  We  must  expand  our  con- 
ception of  religion  until  it  be- 
comes the  principle  of  all  living, 
and  includes  all  life  within  its 
scope.  We  must  take  all  the 
great  normal  interests  of  human- 
ity— the  social,  the  industrial,  the 
educational,  the  political — into 
the  field  of  religion.  These  fur- 
nish  the    field  ^n    and    through 


I50  The  Christian  Life 

which  the  Christian  spirit  is  to 
realize  itself.  The  Church,  as  a 
whole,  has  been  sadly  lacking  in 
this  matter.  The  tendency  has 
been  to  count  only  the  formally 
religious  activity — the  activity  of 
prayer  and  meditation  and  wor- 
ship— as  being  truly  religious; 
and  the  religious  value  of  the 
great  secular  life,  with  all  its 
manifold  interests,  has  been 
largely  ignored.  One  great  con- 
dition of  religious  progress  in  the 
future  must  lie  in  removing  this 
false  and  unchristian  antithesis  of 
the  secular  and  the  religious. 

lo.  The  spirit,  the  life,  is  the 
essential  thing ;  methods  are  only 
instrumental,  and  are  valuable 
solely  for  what  they  help  us  to. 
All  religious  teachers  should  bear 
this  fact  in  mind,  lest  they  fall  a 
prey  to  a  mechanical  devotion  to 
mechanical  methods,  and  thus 
miss  the  end  for  which  all  meth- 


A  Study  151 

ods  exist.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  this  danger  has  often  been 
realized  in  our  Churches.  The 
growth  of  intelligence,  the  spread 
of  good  taste,  a  more  independent 
and  critical  way  of  thinking,  have 
made  many  traditional  methods 
distasteful  or  inefFective.  This  is 
especially  the  case  with  revival 
methods,  many  of  which,  more- 
over, rest  upon  an  outgrown  the- 
ology, and  all  of  which  need  to 
be  revised  in  the  interest  of  both 
good  sense  and  religion.  The  in- 
dications are  that  hereafter  the 
Churches  will  have  to  rely  mainly 
on  religious  training  for  children 
and  "hand-picking"  for  the  ma- 
ture. In  any  case,  we  must  re- 
member that  there  is  nothing  sa- 
cred in  methods;  that  the  pres- 
ent value  of  a  method  depends 
on  its  adaptation  to  present  cir- 
cumstances; and  that  the  most 
effective    method    is    the    best 


152  The  Christian  Life 

There  is  a  general  reaction  in  the 
pedagogical  world  against  rigid 
mechanical  methods,  and  a  de- 
mand for  individual  and  sympa- 
thetic treatment  of  pupils.  This 
reaction  should  extend  to  relig- 
ious pedagogy.  Mechanism  has 
been  overdone  here,  and  there  is 
great  need  for  some  independence, 
originality,  flexibility,  and  living 
sympathy  on  the  part  of  the  re- 
ligious teacher.  Meanwhile,  crit- 
ical friends  must  administer  ''faith- 
ful wounds." 

None  of  these  things,  nor  all 
of  them  together,  can  give  life; 
but  a  due  regard  of  them  will  re- 
move obstructions  which  hinder 
life's  best  development.  Because  of 
needless  misunderstandings,  many 
wander  in  the  desert,  unable  to 
enter  the  promised  land. 


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